Sephra: Spirit's Legacy
by MarkedHawk
Summary: When the fourth light flickers and dies, fate takes hold of his weak life. Moving to Tengu City, a foreign teenager with self esteem issues and his new host brother are dragged into a story of extraterrestrial superhuman girls, evil conglomerates, and the worst of all, awkward dates. Let us begin our game! (SI)
1. Chapter 1

**Welp, this is my very first story posted on this sight, and as usual, it's all about some crappy self insert OC. Yay.**

 **Anyway, for those of you who decide to stick around, this will eventually become a very large crossover featuring many different shows / games. It started out as something to pass the time with, and I've decided to finally post the first ever chapter of the Sephra Series.**

 **Please enjoy the worst first chapter in all of writing history in all of its self deprecating and sarcastic glory.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

The five stood, bloodied and beaten. The haze settling around their feet only managed to act as a small distraction to the amalgamation of flesh and bone present before them. Three stories of pure, unadulterated evil, and the only things standing in its way were an eighteen year old, three seventeen year olds, and a sixteen year old, all of which who were way over their heads.

"Guys?"

One of them spoke, a small and exhausted voice that masked the true strength hidden below.

"Yeah?"

The boy pointed a gauntlet towards the creature before them, the darkness coagulation seeping through the floor, and his own eyes, which were a glowing shade of scarlet red, and said what was undoubtedly one of the most eloquent things he'd ever muttered.

"How in the actual _fuck_ did we go from normal teenagers to the mortal enemies of some creepy Goddess bitch?"

The lone girl tried to block out the swears by putting her hands over her ears, but by the time she'd managed such a feat, the damage was done. The eldest put a light hand on her shoulder, to which she sympathetically smashed her head into his torso. The three remaining boys physically winced as skull collided with chest, making a noise that couldn't have been soothing whatsoever. The recipient of the headbutt looked winded, something that had never been accomplished in quite some time. Rolling his eyes, the loudmouth of the group decided to answer the question. Carelessly.

"We don't know. We never knew. Shit happens that we don't understand. Hey, Yu, care to shed some important plot points that might give us something to work off of right now?"

The eldest, Yu, rubbed his chest painfully still, but still looked serious enough to keep the others attentive. His grey eyes looked over his four comrades, the innocent girl, the vulgar boy, the loudmouth, and the sympathetic one.

"I'm not going to drone on with exposition when we're in the middle of the fate of the multiverse. Just, how about the short version?"

Uncharacteristically, the sympathetic one was the one who groaned in annoyance. The vulgar one took up his mantle temporarily in return.

"Yeah, that's probably best. I'm probably gonna end up writing this shit into a book. Maybe I'll post it on the internet or something."

The loudmouth scoffed.

"This is the tale of five children, the new heroes, the places they'd visited, and the tragedies they'd endured…"

The vulgar boy joined the sympathetic one in annoyance, groaning even louder. The innocent girl looked to the gargantuan beast in the vicinity, as if asking for its input as well.

"Could you be leading up to it any stupider?"

Yu glared at the vulgar boy, grumbling under his breath. The loudmouth had already thrown himself to the ground to sit and listen attentively, and the innocent one joined him. The grinned to one another as the other boys took to the floor as well, leaving the eldest to his story.

None of them seemed to remember the fate of the _universe_ was at stake as they started their story, nor that their friends were in the middle of fighting off an army of corpses.

Who didn't like a good old story time?

* * *

The inside of a plane was relatively boring. Everyone around was donned in boring colors, most often suits, and it was a very dull area. The only dashes of color were from the opened shades of the windows on each side of the planes.

Which was why a boy with copper red hair and an orange shirt was extremely out of place. He was merely humming along to a song playing from a set of headphones covering his ears, his eyes focused on a pamphlet in his hands about all kind of facts surrounding Japan and the area he was traveling to, Tengu City.

His eyes brows rose as he digested the information regarding Spacequakes, a sort of natural disaster that happened periodically. It seemed as if part of the world just randomly explodes, as if someone were to have popped a pimple on the Earth. The very thought of ending up close to one sent shivers down his spine, and he found himself intensely detesting ending up near one.

" **Would all passengers please close their trays and turn off their electronics? We are now beginning our descent.** "

He heard the announcement over his music, leaving him to unhappily sigh and turn off his phone. He looked out the window to his left, looking down at the city in awe.

Tengu City was nestled securely in the ground, rebuilt from the crater that formed after one of the first spacequakes. It had the feel of a new beginning.

And maybe, the one that he needed to fix the physical pain in his chest.

...

The teen disembarked quickly and efficiently, making quick work of the tight line that formed as everyone rose to exit the plane. His sneakers dragged across the polished linoleum floor as he hefted his bag over his shoulder. His brown eyes darted around the airport, taking in what little there was he could call unique. He read the kanji of the shops nearby with ease, linking it to English he was born with. Two and a half years of nonstop studying for this very day, where he could aptly read 'shampoo' in another language.

Oh, if his parents could see him now, they probably wouldn't be that awestruck.

His gait was quick as he traversed the halls, looking for the European clock he was told would mark the place to meet. From what little he knew, the Itsuka family was quite capable of keeping a promise. He pushed through the crowds of people and the white noise around him until the ticking hands came into view.

"Alright, now I just need to find someone holding my name…"

He stopped in front of the clock, gripping the straps of his bag as he glanced around for heads of bright red hair. He was vaguely aware of the people looking at him with curiosity, as if asking what a foreign boy was doing all alone and looking around in anticipation. His brown eyes scanned the crowds of people, incapable of keeping a little fear creep into his heart. Had the Itsuka's forgotten that he was showing up today?

He took a seat at a nearby bench, watching as the other people all flowed past with ease, damning him into the confines of social anxiety.

"Honey, come on! We're late for meeting Ean!"

His attitude perked up at the sound of his name in all of its American glory, sounding awkward in the jumble of Japanese. His eyes shot forwards to two adults, likely in their early forties, the woman with a head of vibrant red hair and the voice of a sports announcer. The man had let out a string of apologies to his wife as Ean rose from his seat and slowly wandered forwards, rehearsing what he was going to say in his head time and time again.

All of that preparation crumbled when the woman noticed his advance and fixed him with an apprehensive look. 'Hello, I'm Ean McBride. Are you my host family' flew out the window and into a plane engine.

"Are you Tatsuo and Haruko Itsuka?"

Oh, that wasn't actually that bad. The woman's face lightened substantially as the man gave him an apologetic and sympathetic look.

"Yes, we are! You must be Ean McBride, correct?"

The woman had a kind smile on her face. One of a mother.

One he hadn't seen in two months, and he missed the feeling.

"Yeah. It's nice to meet you."

A smile must've spread across his face, because the Itsuka's looked much more bright. The man, Tatsuo, started asking him numerous questions about America, to which Ean unpreparedly rattled of vague, unfulfilling answers to. Haruko, on the other hand, had already moved on to the next part of her agenda, a hand blurring into Tatsuo's stomach and knocking his senses straight.

"Shido and Kotori should be somewhere around here…"

As the two looked for what Ean could assume was their children, he silently fumbled with his bag and looked aimlessly about the area. If he remembered what he'd read right, Tengu City was built, or rather rebuilt, in the crater of the Eurasian Sky Disaster, a spacequake incident thirty years prior that absolutely leveled part of Japan.

That had been the day spacequakes started, hadn't it? This entire city had to be a testament to human nature, to adapt and overcome. It was larger than Chicago, but it brought up one very worrying question to his mind.

What caused the spacequakes, and how did a single one obliterate an entire city with ease?

How the hell hadn't he heard about it? That seemed about as big as 9/11, yet no source he'd ever even seen had spoken about the disasters.

"Mom, Dad, look what Shido got me!"

His internal rambling was cut off by a loud and preppy voice, probably powerful enough to blast a hole into a battleship and then some. It took all of Ean's willpower to not cover his ears and shout in pain. A girl with twintails dashed towards them, a small keychain in her outstretched hand. Her flaming red hair was only amplified by the fact she was donned in a white sailor uniform, and had two white ribbons keeping her hairstyle intact. She had this wide smile on her face, and her hand wrapped around a boy's, most likely Shido's.

"Ooh, who's this?"

Without even a chance to look closely at his fellow sixteen year old, the girl practically teleported in front of Ean.

Of course, since he was a guy, he didn't give a little shout of panic at her red eyes gazing unstoppably into his soul. That would be preposterous.

Ean desperately looked to the Itsuka parents for help. Tatsuo just smiled and waved, and he had a suspicion that Haruko was laughing behind the pamphlet she had hidden her face behind. Great.

He looked back to the girl, who was eagerly meeting his gaze. She seemed happy enough to power a lightbulb, which seriously didn't help his social anxiety. He did his best to mirror her smile, and put out a friendly hand to introduce himself.

"My name is Ean McBride. I just came from America with the Kawajiri exchange program. I-I hope you treat me well."

The girl looked to his outstretched hand, back to his face, up to his hair? He could see a laugh bubbling up in her expression as she turned to her brother, scanned him, scanned Ean again, and then giggled like a maniac.

"You're like Shido with red hair!"

Shido with…

Great. Delegated to a rehash already. Ean eyed up the boy, who like his father, had an apologetic smile. The only things different about them were Shido's blue hair and Ean's height. The rest seemed almost spot on: thin body type, hair going to the lower neck, brown eyes, and even the way that they stood was similar.

Punch his self esteem in the balls, why don't you?

"I think you two look more like siblings, Kotori. Maybe I should be the stranger in the house."

Shido had a tinge of mirth in his voice, but also some small sadness. Ean looked from his fellow male to the other members of the family. Blue hair instead of red or light brown, different body type and eye color.

Shido was adopted. It was the only reasonable possibility.

No one else seemed to notice the slight self deprecation, judging by the way their expressions didn't change. Haruko pulled her kids over and rubbed her knuckles on their heads, a wide grin as the teens protested with everything in their souls.

"These little scamps are Shido and Kotori. Say hello to your host brother, kids."

Tatsuo smiled behind the others in his family, and Ean looked at the four of them with a smile on his face as Shido broke from his mother's embrace, stepped forwards, and put a hand out with a smile.

"Good to meet you."

Ean happily shook hands with the bluenette before Shido was shoved out of the way by Kotori, the youngest of the family taking her turn with a wide smile on her face and a lollipop in her mouth.

"I'm Kotori! Do you like anime?"

Yeah, he'd enjoy his time in Japan.

* * *

"So, long story short, we're gonna be around for two days."

Ean's panic came back tenfold when Haruko declared that they were relocating to the United States for their jobs, effectively leaving him to live with Shido and Kotori alone. He was flabbergasted. They trusted their kids enough to leave for _months_ without coming back and expecting to see a burning husk of a building?! What?!

"Mom, I think Ean's shutting down."

Kotori's voice pulled him from his dimension of disbelief and back into the Itsuka family's car, where he realized both Shido and Kotori were looking at him with… concern?

Oh, he was definitely concerned when Haruko choked on her throat and accidentally lurched the car to the side and squished Ean into the window. When everyone had gotten situated, Haruko kept her eyes stuck on the road, but seemed more surprised than anyone else was.

"Oh shit, did I not tell you?! Oh my lord, Ean I am so sorry! It must have skipped my mind!"

Skipped her mind?! _How does something like that skip someone's mind?!_

"N-no, it's fine! I'm just a bit surprised!"

The remainder of the ride was filled with a few apologies as Ean's eyes remained glued on the sky, where he finally accepted his fate.

" _I guess I'm adjusting to Japan with my new siblings…_ "

He could only hope that nothing too crazy was going to happen. After all, it's not like anything would happen to him again, would it?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Goodbye! We'll see you soon!"

Shido, Kotori, and Ean all waved to the two adults as they drove away, leaving them to control the fate of the household. It didn't entirely sit well with the foreigner, but Shido and Kotori seemed almost relaxed with the situation, so he just bit down his complaints and followed their lead.

Two days were spent with Ean trying his best to get to know the Itsuka family and his difficult integration to the household. Tatsuo, despite his mostly laid back demeanor, was evil incarnate when it came to cleaning the house. He thought Haruko's glare in the airport was bad, but was then fixed with the look that could make Lucifer piss himself. The small smiles and slightly naïve nature vanished on the spot when he realized dust had gotten into the corners of the home, and he leapt on it like a wild animal. Shido ended up hauling himself out of the room, and Ean quickly followed suit when the maniacal laughter started. When the chaos ended, the room didn't look any different, despite the deep cleaning that had positively happened.

When the man claimed that he had vacuumed the ceiling, and Ean was too confused to comment and just nodded awkwardly.

Shido seemed to quickly find his way onto Ean's short list of friends. Maybe it was because of his familiarity with his family's eccentric attitudes, but he was able to ease their new foreign housemate in. Whenever Ean found himself even the slightest bit lost, Shido descended from the heavens and guided him through what needed to be done. They appealed to one another's hobbies, mainly talking about mundane things like shows and music, but Ean would be hard pressed to say that it hadn't helped.

Haruko was the closest thing he'd had to a mother in a long time. In two short days, she'd gone from slightly terrifying to an all around pleasant person. If Shido appealed to his casual side, the boy's mother did the same for his professional side. She showed him how to make little bit of Japanese cooking on the first night, and he enjoyed it more than anything. It was like his own mom was back, just more serious and with a bob-cut.

Lastly, Kotori was the wild card. She appeared and disappeared in an instant, sometimes vanishing for hours on end, then returned suddenly with something to drag their attentions from whatever misdeed she might have committed. She liked anime and played a lot of video games that Ean enjoyed as well, but something about it was… off.

Maybe it was the glare. When she returned from wherever it was that she went to, she always had such an agitated look on her face. If anything, he could describe it as downright pissed. Besides, he was a stranger in her house. If she wanted to talk to him, she would. It didn't mean he wasn't curious, though.

He followed the Itsuka siblings back inside and was immediately caught in a crossroads. Kotori had sauntered off to her room, while Shido had stepped into the living room, leaving the boy who was technically their charge to stand awkwardly near the front door and wonder who to follow. Shido, because of his warm presence, or Kotori, because of her secretive demeanor?

Fate said neither. A pain tore through his chest that felt like he was being torn in half. It was enough to drive him to the floor, crashing onto his hands and knees. Everything was forgotten in an instance as memories came flooding back. A bright light, screaming and tearing, and then the split in his torso as his bones turned into toothpicks.

Then it stopped. The pain and memories subsided, leaving the boy whimpering and panting on the polished wood floor. His hand was gripping his chest harder than ever, expecting blood to pool in his white shirt.

With difficulty, he rose to his feet. He managed to stagger down the hall to the bathroom, his feet feeling like they were made of lead, and he slammed the door close way too hard.

That didn't matter. He made his way to the sink, glaring at his own pale reflection. He looked like shit. Again. He turned the water on and splashed it into his face, trying to keep the nausea down with something, anything. Here he was, a boy too burnt out to take care of himself properly. He could see the trails on his skin through the collar of his shirt, reddening from where he'd gripped his chest. He didn't want to look at them again. He was tired of seeing them.

His excuse to avert his eyes came when he heard a knock on the door behind him.

* * *

Shido was counting down the days left until the new school year on the calendar when he heard a door slam with such force that it caused a painting on the wall to crash to the floor.

" _That's not normal._ "

Had Kotori lost in another one of her games? He remembered her rage on Sunday the week prior when she lost to some boss in a notoriously difficult game. The result in such a terrible thing was her screaming and swearing at the top of her lungs for about ten minutes before their mother had enough and told her off. To think the girl who affectionate referred to him as 'big brother' and usually woke him up held such rage was horrifying.

Then his mind clicked the second possibility into place, one that was much more worrying. Something had happened to Ean.

He knew the barest of details when his father accepted Ean from the exchange program, something about slight physical and mental trauma. Shido had actually felt terrible when the American showed up, expecting a kid who didn't know what was happening and probably terrified out of his mind. Then they had a boy with a small smile and a boost of confidence when familiarity kicked in surprise them.

Honestly, Ean had seemed so normal that Shido had forgotten what was specifically told to them. He was in the exchange for his reasons, but if that entailed some problem that they had no clue to take care of...

Shido left the painting on the floor and left the living room, looking around the house for his new brother. He could hear water running from the washroom a few doors down the main hall, so he merely decided to wait and see what transpired.

He began to reconsider when the water stopped, but no one stepped out for a few minutes. The worst possible scenario popped into his mind, one where the redhead was unconscious on the ground and slowly dying away. Blaming his paranoia and telling himself everything would be alright, Shido knocked lightly on the door.

"H-hey, Ean, are you okay in there?"

 _Please answer please answer please answer_.

"Uh, y-yeah. Just… felt a bit nauseous."

Shido groaned in relief when Ean replied and stepped from the room, looking slightly disheveled. The foreigner just affixed him with an awkward smile and rubbed the back of his head a bit. Shido hoped that stopping people as they left the washroom wouldn't become a habit.

"So…"

Ean was trying to fill the awkward silence. Shido could feel it.

"Is… uh… your parents leaving normal?"

Bridging that topic again? Shido could definitely see why it was constantly on his mind. His mom and dad had bounced across the world on numerous occasions for business trips and fixing specific problems ever since he was five. Of course, when they were kids, they had coworkers and nannies, but time had caused that to change. Shido picked up the mantle of parent and took care of Kotori.

"Oh yeah. They work for this company called Asgard Electronics, and it forces them to bounce around a lot. Hey, at least we get souvenirs when they come back!"

Shido felt a small pang in his heartstrings when he added the last part of a whim. It had been so long since he'd actually gotten a souvenir. He had a couple of snow globes from years ago, but the exports had slowed to a halt. It just made him realize how much he missed them when they were gone.

"Cool."

Shido hadn't realized that Ean had slinked past until he felt a hand lightly clap his shoulder. Shido affixed a smile on his face, and his new brother grinned back.

New brother… that'd take some getting used to.

"Hey, does your sister vanish often?"

Oh, Kotori's vanishing act. She loved vanishing on the spot to go enjoy herself away from the family. It did get a bit trying when it was just them, but who could really blame her? The house wasn't that interesting.

"Yep. She's normally ends up at a friend's house. I don't really know how they're always open."

Ean nodded skeptically, still wondering of what made Kotori glare so much.

"You said normally. Where does she go off to when she's not at a friend's house?"

Shido's response died in his throat. Where did Kotori end up vanishing off to? He remembered seeing her phone's GPS Signal at Danny's Diner, her favorite restaurant, but she was too young to be there alone. He had always assumed that she was visiting with her friends, but they were all fifteen as well…

Shido liked to think he knew Kotori really well. She was his little sister, how could he not know her hobbies and habits? Every day, she'd be up with a smile, munching on another lollipop without a care in the world. She enjoyed his presence, he knew that much, and enjoyed a lot of various things. She was kind, sweet, and maybe a bit immature for her age, but she was still a great person.

It wasn't rocket science. Shido could tell Ean was a little averse about talking with Kotori, ever since she barged into the kitchen with a glare that their dad would cower from, then immediately snapping a smile back on her face.

"If I knew, I'd tell you. My little sister is such an enigma sometimes. She's probably going to have people bowing at her feet one day."

Ean chuckled happily, the mental image of a bunch of scantily clad men bowing down to 'Empress Kotori' a bit too outrageous to believe.

"Wouldn't that be a sight?"

* * *

"Commander, I love you!"

Okay, new plan. Euthanize Kannazuki.

Kotori glared balefully at the blond man groveling at her feel, as he should be, and stomped her dress shoe hard onto his nose. He tumbled from her platform, bleeding from every orifice in his face and still somehow still shouting happily. The man collapsed onto the ground by Reine's feet, and just in case, the analyst stomped on his head as well. As usual, the crew of the Fraxinus didn't care, remaining totally silent. This was a daily occurrence.

Scratch that, hourly.

Alright, more like every fifteen minutes. He never learned, okay?

Kotori returned her gaze to the screen before her, analyzing the extent of damage from the recent spacequake, the Spirit, and the AST's interference. Twenty casualties, none of which were Spirit or Wizard. Twenty innocent people that were gone for forever.

They had been there for hours, just going over the incident reports and initializing Realizers to take care of the damage. Her parents had left right after noon, and Kotori took off half an hour after that, claiming she'd go take a nap.

God, was Shido really so gullible that he'd expect her to sleep for five hours? They'd linked a camera in her room to make sure he wasn't going to find an empty bed, but it was a complete waste of time. Shido didn't so much as glance into the room once, leaving her to her 'privacy'.

"I'd find that moron's face in the dictionary next to the word…"

She pushed her brother out of her mind and quickly shot a glare to the masochist that was her Vice-Commander clambering up the steps he'd just crumpled down. She could feel a vein pressing out of her forehead as pain slowly spread through her skull, which she quickly identified as another headache. She wasn't getting any work done, and this was just adding insult to injury.

"I'm headed back home. You're all dismissed for the day."

The crew's silence became small murmurs as Kotori pressed a finger into her temple, asking for the headache to just leave her be. She left her chair, or as she normally referred to it as, her throne, and passed through the doorway to the teleport pads. She didn't want to think or do anything but sleep, arriving at and letting the teleporters main computer handle the location lock. The familiar hum of the machine warming up was enough to slightly jar her back to reality, and the automated voice declared that the destination was found.

"Kotori."

The voice of her trusted friend and analyst kept her from making the warp, and the fifteen year old blinked back to see Reine Murasame, looking strangely concerned.

"Yes, Reine?"

Reine looked almost frustrated, with herself or someone else, Kotori wouldn't know. Kotori leaned against the divider of the teleport pad, prompting the insomniac to speak.

"I know the plan about Shido, but what about the other boy? Ean, I believe his name was?"

Ah. She'd forgotten about him. Kawagoe had said something about him collapsing earlier, but she was so busy with digesting the recent damage support that it ended up being pushed to the side. Shit, she actually felt really bad about that. She'd need to apologize. In a way that kept him from her secret as commanding officer of the Fraxinus.

No wonder Reine had been quiet today. Even though she was a non-certified medic, she'd always been sensitive about seeing someone in pain. Whatever happened to Ean must have triggered her 'mom switch' as the others in the Fraxinus referred to it as.

"I… dunno. Mom and Dad were the ones who let him stay with us. I don't know why, considering they know all about Spirits and Shido's power, but I'm planning on keeping him in the dark."

Reine visibly flinched, and Kotori began to worry. The girl was half tempted to switch to her Weak Mode when the analyst looked back up with serious eyes.

"He's not a possible asset?"

Kotori had pondered the same question. What could the exchange student do? He didn't look to be much of a fighter, nor versed in dating advice. Furthermore, he would have to accept to help them in the first place. No reasonable human being would casually decide to throw themself into danger at the drop of a hat, and if his folder from the exchange was to be believed, someone who had been traumatized, no matter how small, would even dream of accepting.

"Reine, I barely know the guy. He's literally a stranger in my house. Unless he suddenly shows off the ability to seal a Spirit or go toe-to-toe with the AST, I'm not bringing him into our mess."

Kotori left the conversation there, stepping into the teleport zone and vanishing in a smoke of light. Reine watched silently as the young Commander left, biting down on her thumb's nail. The composed look on her face betrayed the fear in her soul.

" _She_ won't like hearing that…"

* * *

Kotori had come from her ceiling abode hours after Ean had stepped out of the bathroom and right into Shido, looking disheveled and like she wanted to kill something. He didn't say a word, and neither did she, but he couldn't help but notice the bags forming under her eyes. He may not know what she was going through, but he knew what it felt like when life wasn't going your way. Silently, he grabbed a blanket on the couch and lightly draped it over her, smiling a bit when she tugged it around her with a thankful hum. It made him feel like a big brother.

He helped Shido as he made something simple for dinner, and the three of them ate together, their conversation comprised mostly of small banter and suppressed chuckles. Ean enjoyed it immensely. Kotori quickly scarfed down her meal, Shido's cooking making her tired state seem like nothing more than a hoax, and then excused herself to her bedroom. The sixteen year olds exchanged small smirks and went their separate ways with their meals finished. Ean himself had gone upstairs after Kotori to grab a quick shower, stripping down away from the mirror to avoid the same sight and pain as earlier, returning to the outside world clad in orange flannel pajamas. He made his way back to the living room, surprised at how late it had gotten so quickly.

He moved to the connected kitchen, grabbing a soda from the fridge as he did. He needed some type of justification to sit in an empty room by himself, and that resolved it. He was content to just sit silent and mull over the past few days, and with no one around, he felt he could let a bit of snark out.

"Well, here I am. Japan. Now as long as I don't disrespect an entire culture, I'm in the clear."

Ean laughed a bit into his soda, the only audience for his joke the empty room. He dropped the act and sighed slightly, tired and a bit depressed. He let himself slump to the table and just let his mind run. A new life, home, family, and everything else, but he was still the same person he was before.

He didn't want to be that person anymore. He was tired of collapsing to the ground whenever the pain became too much.

"Oh, you're still up?"

The male voice forced him to snap around in a panic, leaving the redhead to lock eyes with the bluenette of the household, who was smiling back with an eyebrow popped up, donned in a set of worn pajamas. Ean caught himself before he did something stupid and calmed down, turning back to his drink.

"Hey, Shido. I was just planning on turning in for the night."

Ean was just starting to pull himself up when his fellow male sped to the fridge to grab himself a drink, then immediately threw himself into the hair opposite of the foreigner, a smile on his face.

"You wanna sit and talk for a little bit, at least? I'd like to get to know you better."

Shido wanted to know him? There really wasn't much more to know. He'd told the family about his life the day he'd gotten into the Itsuka home, just glancing by some of the touchy issues. Shido, however, was persistent, and let his first inquiry fly.

"What made you want to come to Japan? I'm sure it's not much different from America?"

Of course, the first question had to be one of the hardest.

"I was in an accident. It just came out of the blue. I'm mostly here to get better."

Now that he thought of it, why Japan in particular? Why not Europe? Why not someplace still in North America?

For what stupid reason did he decide to learn an entirely new language?

"What happened? Why can't you be helped at your home?"

When the words left Shido's lips, he looked horrified. Ean could already tell he just worded it wrong, accidentally making it seem like he hated Ean's presence.

He couldn't really blame him if he did. He _was_ impeding on their normal lives.

Before Shido could stammer his way to an apology, Ean grinned at him and waved his worries down. The bluenette was a bit pale, but nodded silently and went back to drinking his soda. The quiet quickly became awkward, so Ean picked the conversation back up.

"My family ended up on the bad side of chance, me particularly. Accidents piled up, and ever since the first one, I've been different. They couldn't even find the other party."

Damn it. He should've let the silence persist. He just had to run his mouth. The stress must be getting to him; he was starting to swear again.

"Other party? You got hurt by someone?"

There was the question that could make or break his entire relationship with the boy. He didn't want be vague, in case it caused some terrible misunderstanding, but he didn't want to full on give out his life story because he didn't like to bring it up. The therapists couldn't help, and that was there job.

He took a moment to digest the situation, and he looked sadly at the bluenette. He didn't want pity, but Ean glanced down and undid a few buttons on his shirt, just enough to expose his chest.

Shido looked ready to vomit. The foreigner couldn't blame him. It wasn't everyday when you saw someone with such gruesome scars covering their chest. They zigged and zagged like designs, drawing pale white pictures in what was once healthy flesh. An indent was over his right pectoral, accompanied by an almost comical scar, right down the center of his torso, where they had broken open his rib cage to remove the shrapnel in his body. He let Shido have his look, then quickly buttoned up his shirt once again, clarifying the origin to his wounds.

"A hit and run in the suburbs. It's not something you see everyday. Nor is a fourteen year old with a punctured lung and a license plate smashed into his torso."

His grip tightened on the table, not wanting to look and see the pity in his eyes. He hated every second two years ago when every doctor and nurse looked at him like he was some victim. He just wanted life to be normal, damn it! He wanted life to be the way it was, where he'd just been another face in the crowd. Where he wasn't the one barely coherent in a wheelchair! Where he didn't have to see the sympathy from people who just didn't understand what he needed!

He couldn't have that from Shido. He was trying to help him become acclimated, despite his sudden entrance in his life. It wasn't his fault he wanted to know more. It wasn't his fault that Ean was too weak to change their perspectives.

"I'm physically fine. Mentally… not so much."

His mouth was running on autopilot again. What he just thought could have easily been vocalized. It was just another reason to keep his eyes averted.

"Phantom pains?"

He could hear his nails breaking as his grip on the table tightened tenfold. The sympathetic tone of voice was mocking him.

"A lot of them. They were so often that it made me seem like a freak. My parents decided I needed a change of scenery. Then came the exchange program and me becoming fluent in Japanese over the span of two and a half years."

His parents. Son of a bitch, why did he always end up here?! Why did he torture himself with bringing them up every step of the way?

Why did he have to lose them?

"They're gone now."

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that."

You and everyone else buddy. You still had parents.

"I was in the hospital for my last session of physical therapy when the carbon monoxide detectors failed. A pipe had burst in the furnace, and while the house didn't burn down, it took them."

It hurt so much when it happened. It was a complete and utter accident, possible to happen to anyone. He remembered when he got the news the next morning. He cried for days, begged God to bring them back, begged to take their place. Life just continued and left him behind.

"They went in their sleep, which I guess might've been better than anything else. My sister's currently alive, but she's comatose. Has been for two months."

He saw her before he left. How weak and frail she was. Life support was only prolonging the inevitable, but he just couldn't stay. He couldn't watch her lose her life without him able to do a thing.

"Where did you live?"

"Family on Dad's side got me through it. Mom's side is… for the lack of a better word, screwed up. A gold-digging widower of a grandma, dead grandfather, and a psychopathic divorced uncle. Hurray…"

He preferred not to think of them. He loved them, but it was the worst family he'd ever seen.

"At least you can joke about it, right?"

Shido's smile was telling. Ean had totally just said that out loud.

"It's how I cope. Make bad jokes, and if someone laughs along the way, it's not like it'll stop me."

Shido gave a small smile, and the room fell back into an awkward silence with Shido not knowing what to ask and Ean not knowing what to say. This time, the feeling was lighter. He didn't feel so self-destructive now that he had time to vent.

Shido didn't seem to feel the same.

"I'm sure you can tell that I'm adopted?"

Shido's tone was slightly timid as he asked the question, more to the air than anyone. It was obvious he wasn't expecting much of an answer in the negative, especially since he glanced to a family photo on the fridge. Ean swore at himself for bringing up family again, but was kind enough to at least acknowledge the attempt.

"I wasn't going to bring it up."

Something of a thankful hum escaped the Japanese boy's throat as he took a sip of his drink, leaning against the side of the kitchen counter. When he pulled back the aluminum can, Ean was slightly surprised to see a smile on his face.

More thankful than he thought, huh?

"It's fine. It would've happened sooner or later. I was really young, probably five."

Ean drained the last of his drink and resisted the urge to crush the can. They'd abandoned him? The boy who was so serious about putting his family first. God, irony was so damn unforgiving...

"My parents abandoned me. I don't even know why. I have little to no memories of that time. The first thing I do actually remember is my mom, dad, and Kotori."

He put a sympathetic smile on his face. Lord, he was a hypocrite. He just went on and on about how he couldn't handle the sympathy and pity, yet here he was doing the same thing.

But… it wasn't the same, was it? He knew the pain Shido had; he was living the same experience.

"I came close to crossing a line back then. It's only because I was adopted that I'm here now."

Crossing a line… oh.

Oh god.

Shido tried to kill himself?

"More ways than one?"

He didn't imagine the pain in Shido's eyes time and time again. It was there, no matter how small. No one deserved that. Whatever happened back then kept appearing, cutting him off from the others.

"Yeah. More ways than one, huh?"

Shido gave a small smile and nodded. Ean wasn't having it. He rose from the seat, sped over, and wrapped an arm around his buddy's neck, grinning as brightly as he could muster. If Shido couldn't be happy for himself, then Ean would help him find something to pin that happiness to.

Screw the world, and all the people who didn't know about how they were! If he was supposed to suck it up and move on, he would, but they could go to hell if it wasn't full of kicking and screaming!

"Well, you know what? We may be messed up, but we're messed up together! As long as we're together, nothing can stop us! Two miserable teens against the world!"

He heard something of a snicker from the bluenette before the mask cracked and he let his laugh bellow out. Shido's laughing made Ean start laughing, and the two were left as messes of mirth and tears. Ean ended up doubling over and hitting the ground as Shido tried desperately to pull him back to his feet. The Japanese boy caught his breath first, not even fighting the smile across his face as his brown eyes scanned the boy laying on the ground.

"What are you, a bad anime protagonist?"

Ean managed to flop himself over to face the boy's question head on, throwing a triumphant fist into the air with his goal completed for now. He'd made the bluenette happy.

"One who can't shut his mouth, of course!"

Shido grabbed his hand and pulled him back to his feet with surprising ease on both of their parts. They managed to brush the wrinkles from their pajamas, but couldn't quite get their smiles to leave.

"Ean, if you ever need to talk, I'll be right here, ready to open up, okay?"

"Yeah. I got it."

The boys walked side by side as they left the kitchen behind, prepared to finally end the day. They stopped at their rooms, the doors side by side, and Shido gave his friend a pat on the shoulder.

"Get some rest! School starts in three days."

"I'll be sure to. Night!"

They separated for their rooms, turning in for a new day. The two depressed souls slept easy that night.

* * *

Kotori listened as their conversation had gone on for a while, her back against the connecting wall as she pondered over the things said in the room behind her. Shido hated talking about being adoptive, one of the only things he actually despised bringing up. It normally set him into a bad seclusion that only time could mend.

This was different. Shido was completely open about speaking of it, and judging from the tone in Ean's voice, his own injuries were a topic he rarely pursued openly. The hesitation they had only made the other listen harder. Kotori smiled at the display.

" _They're good for each other_."

She made her way back to her bright room, threw herself onto her pink bed, and just glared at the ceiling. She found herself too rude over the past few days. How did she barely talk to the boy who would be living with them? She couldn't justify that with anything, not even using the Spirits as a crux.

" _I'll do better. For his sake and Shido's._ "

She listened as the boy's shared one last laugh and separated for their rooms, signaled by their doors shutting. The girl shifted herself over in her bed, looking at the wall her mattress was pressed up against. Her chest was hurting again, the hot bubbling of the Angel in her body. She didn't even need to question why the feeling was there: her answer was the AST being a bunch of jackasses. They tried to kill another Spirit, which thankfully became lost, but it was putting pressure on Ratatoskr. She didn't want to think about doing it, but Shido's induction was likely the only way she could get any headway.

Camael was burning inside her, a constant reminder of what she was. She didn't want to force her big brother and their new family member into the fray, but they were running out of time. The board of directors wanted something right for once.

Kotori Itsuka, Efreet, was inclined to agree.


	3. Chapter 3

**The third chapter is up, and I've tried a bit to change my writing style a bit because I felt the last was a bit lacking. So far, I've really enjoyed writing this story (Even though practically nothing has happened yet), and I like to see that a lot of people have read it so far.**

 **Feel free to review, criticize my awkward writing, and whatever else that comes to mind. Please enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Shido had woken up feeling fresh and excited, which was an anomaly. He'd normally be crushed mercilessly by Kotori by now, but it wasn't happening today, no sir! An agenda was in play. He tore his covers off and dashed out of his room, descending the stairs and tearing into the kitchen, greeted by a very tired Ean who was drowning himself in a mug of coffee at the kitchen table.

Well, not everyone could be a morning person.

"You know what we're up to today?"

Brown eyes regarded him malevolently, promising pain if Shido became annoying. He took a long swing of coffee, throwing his head back and disregarding the sensation of his throat being scalded unforgivingly. Despite that, Ean seemed to enjoy it, setting down the mug and letting out a long sigh. Shido clicked on the kitchen light, wondering why it was off, and Ean immediately recoiled and covered his face, hissing.

"Sleep. That's all I'm up for."

Shido rattled the boy by slamming his hands down on the table, determined to make the day last. They only had two days until school began, and Ean hadn't stepped outside of the house once. He wouldn't know a thing about the city. He had to witness and enjoy it in person.

"Too bad! I'm showing you around Tengu today!"

Ean let out something between a grunt in confirmation and a groan of anger.

"Stop being energetic. No one else in this house is a morning person."

As if queued, Kotori staggered in, an absolute beast on the top of her head that would soon become her hair. Her eyes were completely closed, and she relied on her memory to traverse the room.

"Get me a coffee," she fumbled as her shin collided with the couch and sent her sprawling onto the ground. "Please."

Ean's snicker was badly concealed, but with Kotori facedown on the ground and halfway asleep, no one would probably hold it against him. Shido grabbed the coffee carafe, which was still almost completely full, and poured it into Kotori's personally designed mug. A gift he'd given her on her twelfth birthday. He set the mug down where Kotori usually sat, and it was immediately snatched up and downed like a shot. When she'd risen, he didn't know, but Ean was suddenly on the floor and gaping like a fish out of water. She must have taken the comment personally.

"Get me another," she croaked. Shido smiled and returned to the coffee machine.

"Why did you kick me," Ean inquired from his spot on the ground, rubbing his side in pain. "The chuckle was supportive."

Kotori giggled lightly down at the shocked boy, poking him lightly with her toe.

"Call it a mystery of life."

The boy gave a groggy sideways smile and peeled himself from the ground. Kotori inhaled about three more cups of coffee until she returned to her usual cheery self, by which time Shido had finished up breakfast. The three ate in a content silence, the boys pretending not to notice as Kotori swiped pieces of bacon from their plates and acted innocent when they jokingly asked about it.

"So Kotori," Shido started, a light smile on his face. "Are you coming with us on our little outing? I'm showing Ean around Tengu City. We could stop at Danny's if you do."

It seemed like fun, especially visiting Danny's. Show her new brother the in's-and-out's of Tengu, maybe mess with him in the many possible ways that the ordinary streets provided with a little help of the crew on the Fraxinus, and even spend time with Shido? It was almost too good to be true, so it sucked when she remembered that Mr. Woodman requested a meeting with the board of directors and she was required to take place.

"I want to, but Aria said she wanted to hang out today."

"Oh, that's fine."

She looked a bit downtrodden, but became completely meek as she turned to Ean to apologize.

"Ean, sorry I haven't been very hospitable to you the past few days. I've had a lot on my plate! Hehe…"

He just rolled his eyes and smiled back to her, claiming "Trust me, I know what that's like. It's no problem."

She doubted it, but gave a small thankful grin. With a promise to join the next time, she watched as Shido ushered their new family member out with a smile on his face, looking happier than ever. She actually wished that she could join them deep down, but she knew it wasn't going to happen. The time would be spent preparing to ease Shido into Ratatoskr.

" _Sorry, Bro,_ " she thought to herself as the front door clicked shut, leaving her alone. " _Life's going be be full of more surprises than an scarred exchange student._ "

* * *

"Tengu is completely normal despite the spacequakes. The people are nice, there are stores that will serve anyone in anything, and there aren't any weirdos around!"

From what he saw, Ean could agree. Shops were stacked neatly together, and the people they'd passed all looked content. Shido showed him the sights: the best restaurants, gaming stores, and even managed to get him to rethink J-pop. When they stopped by Shido's favorite place, a small store full of vinyl records, CD's, and more, he quickly clapped a pair of headphones on the foreigner's head and said he wasn't allowed to leave before he bought a song, physical or otherwise. They burnt an hour alone until Ean stumbled onto an idol by the name of Tsukino Yoimachi and her song 'Monochrome Sky' and quickly decided to make a purchase on his phone. Shido wasn't above lightly teasing him for the pick, but he didn't mind that much.

They stopped by a nikuman stand for a quick lunch as Shido led him towards the school they'd be in the next day, Raizen Municipal High. When Ean inquired about the ludicrously high acceptance rate for new students, Shido explained it was due to the spacequakes. Building a school in the middle of a disaster area like Tengu, where the disasters were overly common, was highly frowned upon and could be potentially dangerous to the students, even though it was outfitted with a large shelter beneath the building. As spacequakes normally began in midair, it was the safest option, and the entire city was equipped with the same technology.

He liked the city because it felt familiar to Chicago, but Tengu City had its faults.

"I can agree with you on two of those points. People and the stores are nice, but every place has their fair share of weirdos," he took to looking through the crowd of people, looking for the people who knew that what they were doing was socially demeaning, but didn't care. He settled on a boy about their age with his hair slicked back. "Like him,"

They both ended up staring at the pervert, whose face was smashed up against the glass of a very risqué lingerie store, ogling a mannequin donned in a nurse outfit. The amount of blood that was spurting from his nose was unsettling to say the least.

"Oh, hey Tonomachi."

Wait, what?

Ean did a double take- a _triple take_. He watched as Shido got to introductions quickly, explaining the foreigner's situation while leaving him all the time in the world to digest. Shido 'Normal Boy' Itsuka knew the guy who put his face against the glass of a shop's front to strip mannequins with his eyes. It sounded like something that a high schooler would be remembered for in the yearbook.

"You know this pervert?!"

Hiroto Tonomachi looked Ean up and down, sucked a tooth, and make it blatantly sure Ean was watching when he purposely looked away. If Shido's friend thought he could get away with that, he was dead wrong. He wasn't taking shit from anyone. In fact, he looked like a kid he hit with his wheelchair when he was called a cripple on his first day out of the hospital. Brat didn't know what was coming.

"Oh, yeah, he's my best friend."

Oh great, best friends with a vagabond! Next he'll say that he finds little girls out in the rain and offers them lunch! Or that he crossdresses for fun!

As Ean contemplated his sanctity in a house with Shido, sweat dripping down his face as his mind raced, the bluenette himself was struggling to keep Tonomachi at bay as he tried to persuade him away from the mannequins in the window. It was a fruitless endeavor until a pair of girls walked by and caught his attention instead, where he tried to follow and was dragged by the collar back to Shido, who was completely accustomed to his friend's outlandish behavior. Tonomachi's skirt chasing tendencies were cut short when his phone buzzed audibly from the pocket of his jeans, and a proud look suddenly came over his face.

"Oh, Shido, did you know I got myself a girlfriend over the break?"

Ean didn't even know the guy and he could smell the bullshit.

"You? You of all people got a girlfriend?"

Shido himself was astounded. He'd been on the wrong side of Tonomachi's schemes for love many times, and some were… mentally scarring to say the least. There was the personal maid service that had an old middle aged European woman named Grenda who was too bloated for her costume. A few weeks after that, Tonomachi came to school covered in bandages because he flirted with the wife of a yakuza member. The amount of times he'd watched Tonomachi's attempts go sideways were about as many times as he'd eaten bread in his life.

"Yeah. Check it out."

He held up his phone, and both boys leaned in to see. At first, they assumed he'd be showing off a picture of something that happened over the break that could prove his claim. Maybe a selfie of them hugging, or a shot of them on a date. Or, taking into account the vibration, they assumed that he'd be showing the two texts between him and her. They were disappointed in what they saw.

"Sorry, I may be going insane, but I'm fairly certain that we're looking at a dating simulator."

'Fall in Love: My Little Seed' was displayed brightly on the screen. Already, Ean wanted to break the phone specifically due to the my little seed part -seriously, what the hell- but then took notice to the animated character that had accompanied the logo. Long hair in twintails, sailor uniform, bright red eyes...

"It looks a lot like Kotori…"

Tonomachi didn't even have time to react when Shido snapped the phone from his friend's hand and glared intently at the screen. The bluenette's eyes briefly flashed a violent shade of red, and he practically growled at Tonomachi when the boy reached for his phone.

"Dude, What the hell?!"

"What? So it looks a bit like your little sister. It's not like it's illegal!"

He knew. Of course he knew.

"She's certainly not legal, either."

Tonomachi's head would've swiveled off of his neck if he turned his head in Ean's direction any faster. The American just looked disappointed in his to-be classmate, shaking his head at him. Tonomachi's blush grew at being ridiculed by a complete stranger, no matter if he knew Shido or not.

"No one cares what you think," he retorted, then he paused to try and find some insult that worked in his flavor. "Freckle dick!"

Shido choked on his throat, but Ean took it in stride. His eyes narrowed as he cockily smiled and pointed at Tonomachi offensively.

"Freckle dick? What, did you get that from your dating simulator too?"

A moment of silence passed before Ean completely paled, and he stepped back looking almost green in the face.

"Wait. D-did you?"

The infamous lewd CG events that every dating simulator had came to Shido's mind immediately. Some were for laughs, some a bit awkward, and other were ones that you viewed in a completely closed off room in the middle of the night. A mental image of Kotori in many types of strange and scandalous positions crept into his mind. Hot springs, swimsuits, _waking up with her in the MC's bed._ No! He needed brain bleach! This is going to scar him for the rest of his life!

" _O-oh, Shido. I'm sorry. I had a bad dream, and you looked cuddly. Maybe I can spend some more time in here with you~_ "

"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The two briefly stopped to watch Shido collapse onto the ground in a sobbing heap, making a puddle of tears and limbs in the middle of the street. People just casually maneuvered around him without an issue, disregarding the boy's mental breakdown.

"You broke him!"

"I broke him?! You came to Japan and caused this! Don't pin his declining mental stability on me!"

Shido momentarily lurched up, a new feeling of hope in his chest. He could blame Tonomachi! That way, Kotori wouldn't disgrace him to the bottom pits of hell for incestual thoughts. Sparks were never going to fly between him and Kotori. His little sister was too young! Too innocent!

The two other teens hurled insults at one another until Shido had to forcefully separate them, but the newfound argument remained. He had a hand pressing into Ean to keep him from lunging at Tonomachi and the other pressed over the pervert's mouth.

"The hell happened to your social awkwardness? Why'd you freak out back home and now you're just… testy?"

Ean's face soured at Shido's observation, but didn't even glance in the bluenette!s direction.

"Normally, I like making a good impression," he clarified quickly, his gaze was still stuck targeted on Tonomachi. "But this _freak_ over here doesn't even deserve that!"

Shido quickly began to state that Tonomachi, no matter how eccentric, wasn't a freak, but something warm and wet caressed his hand and he flipped out.

"Did you just lick my hand?!"

Tonomachi used the chance to throw Shido's hand off of his face, and he looked down on Ean with a vein popping out of his forehead.

"Ohoho, freak, huh? I'm not the one who sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of the city!"

Ean's eyes turned a volatile shade of comical red and started to grind his teeth together until sparks began to fall from his mouth. He lunged forwards, grabbing Tonomachi by the shirt collar and pulling him close, a dark expression on both of their faces.

"We're settling this like men."

"Agreed."

Shido grumbled to himself, rubbing his eyes in agitation. There went his plans for the day.

"Why do I get the feeling that neither of you are going to settle this like men?"

That was the last question he managed before Tonomachi pulled them both to a popular local arcade, declaring war upon the foreigner. Shido watched silently from the back as his two idiots unloaded their plastic guns into the zombies stalking towards them, shooting off more insults than bullets as the points stacked up. How the bluenette witnessed a rivalry develop because of a dating simulator, he didn't know. He did know, however, was that he'd take the first chance to delete that stupid game from his friend's phone. It just made it worse that Tonomachi knew it was going to be a problem and still did it, as he aptly claimed as he and Ean cussed each other out, because of spite. The hell did he have a reason to be spiteful for in the first place?

Furthermore, Ean. Apparently, the talk they had yesterday had knocked off some of the inhibitions he had, leading him to become a lot more vocal and impulsive. Be it because he was familiar with the family now or because it was just an off day, the change was actually jarring. He kept switching to English whenever he wanted to say something that no one else understood, and every fiber in the Itsuka boy's being told him it was very likely morally and socially degrading. You think you know someone.

Now he had a loudmouth vagabond and an impulsive foreigner who deemed themselves as rivals, and their battles were being held inside an arcade.

"Shido Itsuka."

A monotonous voice shook him from his perceived zombie killing stupor, and he dumbly glanced back and forth to find the source, locking onto a girl with short white hair, bright blue eyes, and a few hair clips.

"Hm?"

"You _are_ Shido Itsuka, correct?"

He was a bit unnerved by how her expression wasn't changing as she spoke that he almost missed the question she asked him.

"Uh, y-yeah. Who are you?"

Her eyebrows furrowed only slightly, the only true sign of emotion she showed.

"You don't remember me?"

Was he supposed to? An old classmate? Childhood friend?

"...no…?"

If it was even possible, her emotionless face darkened, somewhat unperceivably. Her hands grabbed onto his arm, the grip cutting off his circulation like a metal vice.

"Let's go."

"Huh?! Wah, h-hey!"

She dragged him off with surprising ease, kicking a door off of its hinges when it got in their way. He didn't know what he was getting into when he woke up, but he should've taken the suggestion of more sleep. Whatever she was planning to do to him was probably going end up with him terrified into days of sleepless nights.

* * *

"Hey, where's Shido?"

Ean was spiteful to be beaten by the slick haired moron next to him, but it was a valiant battle. Tonomachi garnered at least a modicum of respect for his ability to play through almost the entire game while barely getting hit. All the excitement was making his scars hurt and his chest tense, but the pain didn't become another episode. Despite that, upon realizing that the bluenette was missing from where he stood minutes before, the teens immediately began to search the surrounding area, butting heads the entire time. Tonomachi was giving half-hearted attempts to trip Ean over, but because he had a modicum of coordination and instinct, the foreigner was able to avoid them, but it brought more ill will to the table.

"Hey, how'd you two meet, anyway," Ean asked, the question having been on his mind ever since Shido declared him as his best friend. "Shido doesn't really… feel like you."

As his next attempt to force Ean to cause a scene was thwarted -sandwiching him between himself by using a claw machine full of chicken pillows, then cutting him off by utilizing a surprisingly ignorant group of teens- Tonomachi gave him the scoop.

"That's a question I haven't heard in a while. Primary school. Some pricks were picking on me and trying to take my lunch money, and the dork fended them off even though he could've gotten hurt doing so."

Ean certainly thought that was a Shido move. He wasn't one to let things go like that.

"He's always doing that type of stuff. He throws himself into danger at the drop of a hat to help someone he barely knows. Most of the time he gets pretty hurt, but he's always back on his feet the next day. Sometimes, I think the guy should've died from his injuries."

The last comment brought back the talk they'd had the night before, and Shido's allusion to his attempted suicide, and he felt so protective of the bluenette that he actually glared at Tonomachi, shocked that he'd even say such a thing.

"You just say what comes to mind, don't you?"

Tonomachi shrugged a bit, casually nonchalant about stating that his best friend should have keeled over by then. It made a pit in the middle of Ean's stomach, amplified by the fact that he couldn't get the thought of Shido throwing himself in the way of a car to get someone out of the way from his head. It may be selfish, but he wished for a moment that the bluenette had been there when the accident happened.

But it would've led to Shido getting hurt, and a large part of him didn't like the thought of that in the slightest. He truly knew the basics and a couple of feelings the boy had, but there had to be something of a connection. He was technically family now. He wasn't going to lose another.

While Ean was so busy absorbed into his own thoughts, they rounded a corner and almost walked directly into two girls, a pair of twins with vibrant orange hair. Normally, they'd have apologized and left, but something about the two completely pushed the idea from their heads. They were wearing a _lot_ of leather. No, not leather jackets and tight fitting pants, they were clad in full-on BDSM outfits. Ean's eyes might have popped out of his head if Tonomachi hadn't elbowed him in the stomach as a silent warning to avert them before anyone got the wrong idea. Everyone but one of the twins jumped slightly at the close call of physical contact, her face just emotionless. The fastest to recover was the one in deep violet, who looked the boys up and down and smirked happily.

"Ah, perfect! We have our judges, Yuzuru."

The boys exchanged a look, silently asking whether or not either of them understood.

"Agreement: Kaguya."

The one closer to Ean looked delicate, like she'd break if someone hugged her too hard. Vibrant orange hair flowed from her head, the hair in the back tied down by a neat braid circling her head. Her clothes left nothing to the imagination, with some strange bra-like top, purple shorts, and thigh-high boots, but she was mainly covered in violet leather. A cloak was situated around her waist by her bright pink belt, and strangely enough, she had large handcuff like accessories around her right wrist and heel. On her neck was a choker with a lock and a chain attached to it.

The chain seemed to have once connected to the one hanging from the lock on the other twin's choker. Her outfit seemed to completely mirror her sister's, the only differences being a small, tight fitting skirt and her cloak low around her arms. Her hair was also different in the back, a long braid that went to about her thighs.

Tonomachi, the God of eloquent observations himself, scanned the two up and down quicker than Ean had managed, decided what he was going to say, and spewed stupidity from his mouth.

"Uh… quick question. Why are you both wearing BDSM outfits?"

Unholy screaming and swears from all over the planet filled Ean's mind. You couldn't just ask something like that and not expect them to be offended. They were going to be bombarded by the longest winded explanation possible of why they chose to wear gimps instead of actual clothing. A memory of a young Ean asking a person donned in a fursuit why they were a large anthropomorphic dog decided to give him the chance to become reaccustomed. The description was something no ten year old needed to hear.

"BDSM? What's that?"

"Confirmation: Might it be something erotic?"

Ean realized it, and judging by the way Tonomachi went from expectant to perverted in a split second, so did he.

"It stands for-"

Ean smashed a foot into Tonomachi's groin before he could explain. He couldn't believe that they didn't understand, but if they were actually innocent enough to not know, he was going to change the future before it was too late.

"It's an acronym… for a…"

He tried to find the words, but they avoided him like the plague. He couldn't mention anything slightly perverted, but double meanings and innuendos were pointed out for a reason.

"...study group."

So he obviously went with an answer that could be taken as many ways as there were types of noodles.

"They like… different things."

The less specification about his train of thought in that moment, the better.

"Surprise: We fit perfectly."

Oh no.

He made a huge mistake.

"Yeah, we like a lot of different things! Like fighting!"

The twitching in his face reached an apex, and he could feel the pain setting in. He did not just think of that. He doesn't need the image of these girls doing whatever the hell they do when they're alone in his head. Leather on skin shouldn't be in his brain.

"Concern: The human looks to be in awful pain."

No, Tonomachi was in pain on the floor. Ean was just broken.

"I know what'll take the edge off! The two of you are going to judge us in our seventy sixth battle!"

Seventy six battles?! Each of them were supposed to be different, too?

"We're currently at a tie. Both of us have seventeen victories each, and we're at forty two ties. We have twenty four more battles until we've finally found who the true Yamai is!"

Victories?! What entitled a victory?! And how does one manage a tie in that kind of scenario? He was not versed in their community, and at the chance he had of learning whatever 'Yamai' meant, he would make certain not to take it.

"Tonomachi _,_ " he hissed under his breath upon seeing the look on Hiroto's face, wary of being heard by the girls."Wipe your effing nose. You're bleeding everywhere. I'm stressed and I don't need you dying on me here."

The only response the boy gave was a tittering laugh, and Ean just looked at him in disgust and was tempted to reintroduce his sneaker to the boy's nads. He gave the boy a break and helped him up instead, and the girls sandwiched them and guided them through the arcade. As they walked, the twins made comments about some of the attractions, like the claw games and racing simulators, promising to return and use them as a means to battle. The foreigner didn't understand.

When they finally reached their destination, the choice of battle wasn't blades, whips, or anything else possibly natural.

"You're going to fight with kendama toys?"

Their response was to only start playing, trying their hardest and failing to balance the ball on the spokes. If they started swinging those at each other, Ean swore that he was going to find the closest body of water and drown himself in it. Tonomachi would likely be taking pictures, of both the suicide and the cause of such a drastic moment.

"Mommy, why are those girls wearing a bunch of dog leashes?"

The boys were mortified when a child pointed out the twins to his nearby mother, who looked absolutely mortified at the sight of the kendama absorbed girls.

"Oh, t-there, there! Just leave the… special people alone," she stated, ushering her kid away. The look she gave them was telling. "You should be so ashamed of yourselves."

He hoped Shido was at least faring better. Ean could feel the people's disappointment in him!

* * *

Shido found himself between a rock and a hard place: Origami, as the girl introduced herself as, and the wall she slammed him into. Every alarm in his head was blaring at max volume as she slowly shimmied towards him, her arms pinning his own with formidable strength. Despite all of the warnings his mother had given him about 'Stranger Danger,' he wanted to at least treat her with some respect, curious as to how she knew him. He didn't think it be taking place in the most deserted room of the entire arcade building.

"Um, T-Tobiichi? Why are we in a janitor's closet?"

He wished he could see other people in case things went south. At least that way he could ask someone for help if Origami turned out to be a yandere or just plain psychopath.

"I payed him off to keep this room emptied of people."

Oh. Yeah. Totally normal. He likely shouldn't tell his boss that some random girl told him that he shouldn't go into the janitor's closet.

"Okay, but… why?"

"So we can talk."

Did she just get more forceful?

"Couldn't we do that in publi-"

She cut him off by tightening the grip on her arms, prompting his terrified silence.

"So we can talk."

Definitely more forceful than before!

"Okay."

Shido felt panicky, and for good reason. If it was going to turn out like something akin to a love confession, which was unlikely but possible, he could understand the isolation, but Origami didn't seem nervous, anticipating anything, or… anything, really.

"You don't remember. How?"

It was the second time she'd said that, but he still didn't know what she meant. He tried asking when she dragged him away from the eyes of literally anyone who could help him and she just stayed silent. She was telling him to give her the answer to a question that didn't exist!

"I… what am I supposed to be remembering?"

Was it his first kiss? Like, the one he hadn't had yet because girls saw him with Tonomachi and deemed him a sicko and a pervert?

"Me. Your girlfriend."

OR THAT, OKAY!

"WHAT?!"

He was sure he'd remember something like that! Was she taking some type of promise between toddlers years ago and cashing it in now, because no one actually took those seriously!

"I-I don't even know a thing about you besides your name."

"I don't mind. I know enough about you for both of us."

Wait, what does that me-

"Your blood type is AO RH plus. Seated height is ninety point two centimeters. Upper arms and forearms are thirty point two centimeters."

Oh dear god, she's a stalker.

"How do you-"

"Three sizes are eighty two point three, seventy point three, and eighty seven point six centimeters respectively. Right eyesight is zero point six, left is zero point eight."

To emphasize her point, she placed over his eyes respectively, making an already awkward situation even stranger.

"Please stop."

He realized it was a one sided battle when she just pushed closer against his body, her hand still over his eye.

"Grip strength is forty three point five kilograms. Your blood pressure is one hundred and twenty eight dash seventy five."

"I don't even know that off the top of my head!"

He pushed her lightly away, wanting space but also wanting to diffuse the situation with it coming to blows. Besides, he needed to figure out the reason why she knew his physical capabilities better than he himself did. The last time he got his blood pressure checked was months ago.

"Look, you made your point! I'm just not really looking for a relationship."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, giving off the image that she was more tired than annoyed or angry.

"I am. You're my boyfriend. I've given you my emotions already. My body is just another step."

Shido made the noise of a dying duck and his brain checked out of common sense. Origami took it as confirmation to drag him into a hug, where her absurd strength made his back crack painfully. Her hands ghosted over his back, and the white haired had no qualms about letting her hands slowly trickle lower, specifically where the sun didn't shine. She quietly turned her head up, so she could look him in the eye as she whispered one last statement breathily into his ear.

"Ravage me."

"And I'm done!"

Shido tore from the girl's embrace and out of the closet in record time, hauling himself away before he'd lose his first time to a stalker in the back of an arcade. He could hear Origami's relentless footfalls behind him, so he resorted to drastic measures. He darted back and forth through the alleys of machines, threw his body physically over people, and had barely managed to lose her by crawling onto the top of a claw machine filled with pillows modeled after chicken nuggets. He swore he was caught for a moment when Origami approached the machine and began to _sniff_ like a bloodhound, her face unblinking and completely neutral, until she took off in a random direction.

"Kid, you're not allowed to climb on the machines."

"Sorry!"

He removed himself from his hiding spot, leaving him to peek around every corner and glance behind to just calm his paranoia of being caught by Origami again. He traversed the crowds of people, his heart beating out of his chest whenever he saw a dash of white, until he stumbled across four people at a secluded corner, two girls in revealing and masochistic outfits, Tonomachi with a large bleeding nose, and lastly Ean, who looked like he wanted the car to come back and finish the job. Shido disregarded the girls, who were wildly swinging kendama toys around with reckless abandon, grabbed Ean by the back of his collar before he could even realize what was happening, and bid the arcade and Tonomachi farewell, propelling from the building, down the street, and two alleyways to ensure that Origami hadn't followed him. Upon accidentally choking the exchange student half to death by attempting to have him prepared as a human shield, he apologized and gave his reasoning, telling him of the experience he'd just had.

"Dude," Ean murmured in a shaky voice, rubbing his eyes to get the images out of his brain. "You lied to me about the weirdos."

"At least things can't get any worse from here."

Shido was lying again, and they both knew it.

* * *

She watched from atop the building as the two went on with their day, completely unaware to the danger that would find them. No, she didn't mean Shido's stalker, either. Her flame red hair followed the breeze, and those sorrowful red eyes had a laser focus as they laughed over a distant joke. Fire licked around her clothes as her sandals ground into the concrete on the rooftop. Her robes were the perfect replica of her own mother's set, up until the change happened.

One might have seen her and assumed she was related to Kotori Itsuka. They would be horribly wrong. She may owe Kotori her life for keeping Shido Takamiya safe in her home, but they would never be related. Not after what her mother had allowed to happen to the innocent girl. The Angel Camael was tricky, to say the least, and with that came unwarranted pain. Pain that could've been prevented with ease.

"Tohka's started waking up. The spacequake will be tomorrow or the day after."

She squeaked when the voice caught her monologuing. She didn't need to have Sakura teasing her about anything ever again, especially not after she caught her reading a modeling magazine.

"Oh. G-good."

She knew her face was probably covered in a blush, and before she could be seen, she increased the temperature of her body and instantly decreased it, returning her entire body to the shade of natural, unblushing skin.

"Hey, Homura, you alright?"

She turned to see her close friend, greeted by those memorable eyes. One was a bright red, the other a golden clock. Kurumi Tokisaki was not only standing out in the middle of the day in Elohim, but also smiling friendly. It wasn't the vicious smile she'd seen before, nor was it one that she donned as the image of a sweet girl. Kurumi looked worriedly over her, trying to find the source of her sadness, only for curiosity to set in when she realized that the Flamebringer was standing awfully close to the edge, a small blush creeping back onto her face. Kurumi lunged forwards to see, laughing when Homura aptly responded by attempting to keep her from seeing over the ledge, but when Kurumi wanted something, she normally got it. A shadow opened up under the redhead's feet and left her struggling to pull her sandals from the murkiness, leaving Homura desiring to light the girl with such a lopsided hairstyle on fire.

"Oh," she said with allure in her voice. "You're watching over them again?"

Her tongue stuck slightly out of her mouth as Homura finally freed herself, eviscerating the shadows with a raging inferno from her hands. The redhead managed to looks somewhat dignified in her actions and looked seriously back at the Spirit designated as Nightmare.

"Yes. If only to keep them safe."

"Aww, you're crushing on them, Homu! I can agree on Shido, but Ean? Eh."

Homura glared a bit at Kurumi. It wasn't her place to decide that! She could feel whatever she wanted! Besides, she just wanted to keep them safe. She'd smite anyone who thought differently. Before she could even think of letting loose a retort, Kurumi pushed a finger into her chest and let a small smile loose.

"Those two will be fine. After all, they survived all the shit thrown at them. They and Miku fought a skyscraper full of DEM Wizards and won."

Survived wasn't the right term yet. Will survive was more specific, especially with what they were going to be dealing with. Tohka's capture almost left Ean dead, forcing him to recover for about a month in the Fraxinus. Homura hoped he was ready for another scar. The day the three had taken on the DEM was a turning point in their lives, possibly more important than the discovery they'd soon stumble upon. She remembered Kurumi's unquestinable happiness after she got a head pat from Shido, literally telling everyone she could about the experience, purposely skimming over the fact that Mana Takamiya had decapitated her.

"I know. But, the future isn't an apologetic construct. It changes constantly because of my mother's actions."

If something wrong happened, they'd be worse for wear when the battle happened. Fate was a cruel mistress, one that didn't forgive even when everything was returned to its origin. She felt dark when she came to terms with the fact that some things just couldn't be averted for the better.

"Hey. I don't need you moping over mommy dearest right now. We've got a mission to make sure they're safe. God knows that Sakura wouldn't forgive us if we accidentally let something scuff her 'Darling's' skin."

Kurumi rolled her eyes as she imitated their third friend's pet nickname, acting more like a high school girl than she had when she imitated one in the hundreds of timelines her clones were from. It was all in good fun, but Homura couldn't say that it was a bit unnerving.

"It's almost time, isn't it?"

They had chosen to meet in the area for a reason, and that was to find the help of a hero who knew exactly what would be happening in the world. It was his ability, the Power of the World itself.

"To meet him? Yeah."

Kurumi waggled a finger as her shadow widened to cover the floor they stood on. They sank into the floor, and gravity began to deteriorate when they were fully engulfed. Unable to move, the shadows slowly pulled them through to their destination, and Homura kept a hand tightened around the Time Spirit's. The space felt like it was thicker than water, but moved and swirled like it was alive. There was no perception of distance or time, and the Flamebringer couldn't tell if they were even moving. The shadows reminded her of the underworld that her mother crawled out of. They weren't pleasant memories. She preferred the mode of light she normally assumed when teleporting.

Kurumi could feel her friend's fear, and didn't pull her hand away. The meek girl had given her a second chance, so who was she to leave her to her inner demons? She hadn't been that person for a while, and she didn't plan on reverting back to that state. She smirked and pulled her forwards, so they were side by side. Homura gave a thankful smile just as the light ended, and they stepped into the location only accessible by very few people.

A car, a limousine, and the entire thing was a deep blue. Across from where a small couch was sat existed a small bar, two shelves filled with champagne and wine glasses. To the center of the vehicle was a seat perpendicular to the couches along the side, disconnected from the others by a small circular table covered in a white tablecloth.

Kurumi threw herself down onto one of the seats, her façade of the meek and innocent girl showing through once again, no matter how slightly. She brushed her hand over the fabric of the deep blue seat, smirking to herself.

"Velvet. My my, someone certainly has a taste for decor."

Homura could agree, although would like to have seen some warm colors thrown into the mix. A book laid on a couch caught her attention, Homura's hobby of learning about the world giving her just enough courage to inspect it's leather cover. Kurumi, on the other hand, felt no sympathy for the possessions of others, and made to grab it.

"That's not yours."

Then, they were joined. It was as if he merely appeared, a tall boy in the place of the empty seat. He didn't look up, around or anything, but already knew the layout. He grabbed the thick tome Kurumi had been going for and opened it, silently looking over a page of moving images. Homura stealthily snuck a peek, amazed to see many memories that Kurumi had shared with her via Zafkiel's fifth bullet, Hei. She watched in awe at the sight of Shido standing proudly against a beast that trumped his size with ease, unwavering in his glare even as eyes as red as blood pierced down at him. A girl in a large red cloak was spinning a weapon so fast in her hands that the very item was a blur to the eyes, causing a whirlwind of pain and petals to coat the air. Before she could even think of looking to what might have been a glowing blade, the boy slammed the book shut and turned his grey eyes to the girls.

"Hello, Kurumi. And you must be Homura?"

She let out a whimper as she saw just beneath the surface of his eyes. They were cold, emotionless and unfeeling. It was those eyes that she'd seen before by people played with by something they couldn't control. She knew what that was like more than anything, the lone problem child of her generation.

"I-I… yes."

He smiled, one without any heart in it, and it almost seemed like he was looking through her and viewing all of the secrets she promised to keep locked away.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I assume you're here because you know what will happen?"

Kurumi, who had been smiling ever since the boy appeared, narrowed her eyes slightly, the bright expression turning more sadistic than positive.

"You're quite intuitive. You may be fun to play with yet."

Any normal boy would've reacted even slightly to her advance, but this one seemed to harden himself. His muscles tensed visibly under his clothes, and his hand turned stone white around his book of memories.

"If you're planning on using me to fuel Zafkiel, you're stupider than I remember."

Homura reeled back, instantly pulling her guard up. If he knew of Zafkiel, he likely encountered Kurumi or the Spirits who donned the Angel before. His knowledge of how Kurumi had to replenish her time instantly told her that he'd witnessed it firsthand, and had even managed to get an explanation from it.

"Oh! That's offensive!"

Kurumi, instead of reacting as Homura did, pouted childishly. She looked utterly defenseless, but Zafkiel's hands ticked in her eye, the clear sign that she was preparing a bullet.

"You ended too many of my lives for that very reason. Nothing gets past me, Nightmare. Except that girl over there."

Homura flinched under his gaze and wished she was small enough to be completely overlooked. Those dead eyes just felt completely wrong, and the way his tone dropped sharply wasn't helping.

"You're no Spirit nor Shadow. You're not human, Android, or anything I've seen before. What are you?"

She saw Kurumi's teasing pout drop slightly, only for her to don a fake smile that threatened to end the boy in an instant if he ended up hurting the redheaded girl. Hoping to avoid the unneeded violence, Homura bowed her head slightly, quickly rehearsing her words in her head.

"I… believe that may be difficult to explain. My name is Homura Kūin."

No response from the boy, but Kurumi snickered behind him. Homura shot her a glare.

"You may know me as Ho-Musubi, but if that isn't enough…"

She let out a deep breath, worried of the impending reaction. No one ever believed her when she told them the truth. All of the information and myths regarding her name usually directly conflicted with who she was, like the most prominent of all, her gender.

"My true name is Hi-no-Kagutsuchi."

She waited for the denial that she knew would come. She just declared herself a Goddess, which anyone with a shred of common sense would deny. But it was true. That part, at least, wasn't fabricated.

"Legends said that you were a boy."

"Legends get a lot wrong, alright?! I'm not a boy!"

Why was she cursed like this?! Why was it always asking why she had breasts and not why Izanagi didn't cut her down when she was an infant? How did the human race actually believe that she was a boy?! Every single myth had her as the _male_ God!

"Come on, stop teasing the transgender Goddess."

If anything, Homura blushed harder. The boy disregarded the Flame Goddess and looked to Kurumi in a deadpan expression that bordered on suspicion.

"I remember you differently, Kurumi. Normally you'd be threatening to end my life by now."

She smiled, but instead of retorting, reached into her shadow and removed a small object from it. It was similar to a cell phone used on Earth, but was inherently different. It seemed to have two sleek sides of durable white material, but slid open to reveal a screen with Kurumi's face on it. The boy recognized the device in an instant, and he instantly knew what was happening.

"You… you're from a distant future."

In his first show of actual emotion, his eyes brightened to a dangerous degree, narrowed and angered as he reached for Kurumi to keep her there, terrified that the chance to change things would slip through his fingers. When she managed to ease out of the way, his slightly eager mask turned to a visage of horror.

"Tell me. Tell who the fifth Marked One is! Tell me where to find them!"

The despair in his voice made it seem more like he was begging for the answer than demanding it, but the topic was too much to speak about in any type of positive matter. A Marked One was regarded as a desecrated being: someone permanently stuck between life and death. The human tales of their kind almost always ended in destruction and loss. Joan of Arc, Achilles, Moses and hundreds of others came to mind, the schooling she detested reminding her of how the loss of their innocent lives affected the world, reducing them to memoirs of ancient history and religions.

His desperation made sense. Five cursed souls at once, and one mistake would lead to chaos. Kurumi seemed to realize as well, because she placed her shadow between them and forced it to separate him from her Astral Dress.

"Woah there, Wild Card," she kept a close watch as her power made him sit, the clock in her eye ticking back five minutes. "Calm yourself. I'm not keen on making this life into a mess where none of you are ready. Yes, I'm a clone from the future, and you've been doing really well. Better than some of the attempts I've seen you try."

The fifth bullet had shared many memories, but Homura was always terrified when they ended in blood. Bodies were strewn on the ground. People who had chosen to fight, the friends of this boy and the Spirit, were mauled and torn apart. The arm of a happy-go-lucky blonde was feet from her body, stabbed through the heart and covered by her black themed friend. She had to witness the ending to their story hundreds of times, but the boy likely had seen thousands all end in a fraction of that.

"Do you have a way to break my cycle?"

His voice was low and bitter, his head hanging low. They could feel the pain in his soul crushing his hope, already knowing the answer but holding on long enough to try and see the change.

"No. Sorry."

His hands folded into fists, but he didn't show any anger. Homura expected him to get up and try to swing at Kurumi, or yell, or anything. She expected a human reaction, but was met with a blank slate. He pulled his book close to his chest and released a sigh, his eyes cold again.

"You're linked to Shido and Ean, aren't you? M-may I ask who you are?"

The boy adopted a forlorn look at the names, but allowed a smile to form. He tightened his grip around the tome in his hand, running his fingers over the smooth leather covering. Briefly, for less than a second, his cold grey eyes turned a shade of bright red, and the meeker girl flinched slightly when he slammed the book down onto the table and rose to his feet. He looked almost mad as he regarded the two girls, the enticed Kurumi and the off put Homura.

"My name is Yu Narukami. I am the second Marked One."

* * *

 **Dun Dun DUN!**

 **Please know that this series of stories** _will_ **become a crossover, but this story will remain rooted primarily in the Date A Live world. Yu is here because in the first chapter, he was the 'Eldest boy,' and is essentially acting as a narrator remarking about the past.**

 **Props to anyone who figures out the First Marked One, who I dropped a couple references to.**

 **Signing off for now, Hawk.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Shido was supposedly fairly social. Ean realized this when they walked into Raizen High and the bluenette was immediately bombarded with his classmates and friends, talking happily about what they did over the break. The boy looked genuinely happy with the interaction, yet it left Ean shafted to the side unceremoniously. He didn't want to be spiteful, so he just stood a few feet away and watched as the conversations bled into the white noise all around them.

Ean felt envious because of it. He'd never really been the social kid back home, and the accident just made him a sad sight. He didn't like sports, which was essentially immediate ostracization, and from the lack of memorabilia in the Itsuka house, neither was his fellow teen. His hobby in acting died along with use of his legs all those years ago, and unlike his physical capabilities, the feeling never came back.

That didn't mean he couldn't try to strike up his own conversations, even if he lacked a topic.

"Hi, I'm…"

The greeting didn't last, completely ignored by the boys walking past. He tried again, this time to a couple of girls. He couldn't even get his name out before they left him be.

Damn schools… they always seemed to be the place where he was reduced to another unremarkable face in the background.

 _I just wish one time that I could be the talk of the town…_

...

If there was anyway Ean could feel more awkward, the metaphorical being that played with his existence would be hard pressed to find it. Eyes from every corner of the room were drilling into him, looking him up and down for every little detail they could attain from the enigma that was the boy with mounting anxiety.

This was not what he meant when he wanted attention on him. This was another scenario when he was seen as different, only out of chance rather than reason. He wanted to _earn_ the attention, not demand it.

"Hey, Shido?"

His attempt to net the bluenette's attention hit the air and was crushed by the atmosphere, his voice barely carrying half the distance required. Funny, considering they were sat right next to each other.

"Who's he?"

"Didn't you hear? He's an exchange student from America rooming with Shido."

"That's so lame…"

Ean did his best to ignore the chatter as he rested in his new desk, trying to at least look faux-impressed by the sight of the sky outside the window. He watched from his peripherals as Shido talked with Tonomachi, who was still absorbed by the twins they'd met in the arcade, to which the bluenette disproved the boy's claim that he'd gotten their numbers.

"Look at the guy. Shido's supposed to be showing him the ropes, yet he's just talking with that perv Tonomachi."

"I heard that they're actually gay lovers, and that Tonomachi is unfaithful to the point where he swings both ways."

"That's so lame…"

The girl wasn't wrong, because that was lame. Whoever had created that rumor was really scraping the bottom of the barrel. He looked to those who had caused such a bad reaction in him, catching a blonde, brunette, and black haired trio of girls, undoubtedly the popular girls.

Well that option was out the window. Considering they seemed perfectly content alone, he probably wouldn't fit in.

He scanned the faces, seeing people happily chatting away or giving him small glances. No one seemed to try and beckon him over, or even introduce themselves to the boy, and it kicked his self-esteem in the balls.

" _Damn it…"_

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as girl stood and looked in their direction, likely just another person mesmerized by the foreigner in their midst. Bubblegum pink hair was obviously more amazing than a kid from another continent, but from some of the obtuse hair colors he'd seen in Tengu, maybe that was a way of life.

He started watching her closely, confused by her face whirring through the various stages of pale, and how she was awkwardly shifting side to side.

Oh thank God, someone like him! Neither of them knew what the hell to do in the middle of large social gatherings!

" _I should not be getting so much relief from that similarity…_ _How does one approach this situation rationally? Okay, just do it like a normal person. No stress swearing - people don't like that. Just walk up to her and introduce yourself. Make a good impression. I'm Ean McBride! I'm new around here! That's all you have to say."_

He took a calming breath. He stepped up. He stumbled over his own feet.

And he crashed right into her. They both hit the ground in a heap, and he did his best to not notice the bottom of her skirt brushing against his legs, nor how close he was to her chest.

He was blushing, she was blushing, the people around them were blushing, someone was laughing their ass off and taking photos, and he wanted to throw himself out the window.

"I'm Ean McBride. I'm very sorry."

" _FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!"_

"S-Stephanie Yaria."

She was doing his best not to meet his eyes, and he felt like that was something she was completely entitled to. Probably not from the fact that he was on top of her like a damned harem protagonist, of course.

"Well, nice to meet you. I… guess?"

Ean rose and pulled her from the ground, resisted the urge to brush the wrinkles from her clothes, turned on his heel, and sprinted the the back of the room, where Tonomachi cackled as Ean collapsed onto Shido's desk facefirst.

"I don't know how to socialize," he cried into the wood, oblivious to Shido trying and failing to stifle his own laughter. Stephanie herself was frozen in place, her face redder than ever seen before.

"I'm never going to be able to look her in the eyes ever again! Son of a bitch, I hate myself sometimes! God, just kill me already…"

Origami entered the room during the chaos, looked at Shido's desk and the boy almost crying onto it, then to the obviously claimed desk beside his. She did what was sensible and seized the bag resting on top and whipped it out the window. Conversations actually stopped as people watched its beautiful brown arc down to the ground, where it collided with the school gate and crashed down onto the concrete. If that wasn't enough, a cat had wandered by and decided to relieve itself of the leather. Ean's head was already resting against the window by then, miserably watching the desecration of his once favorite piece of luggage, then turned to Origami, who had claimed the seat that was once his.

"That was my fucking bag…"

She ignored him and he glared back.

"That's also _my_ seat."

"It didn't seem to be claimed," she responded callously. The vein on Ean's forehead doubled in size.

"Because you threw the bag resting on it into the horizon," he retorted hot-headedly. The girl continued to ignore him, and he was half ready to throw _her_ out the window and see how she liked the smell of cat piss. Their teacher, Tamae Okamine, walked in to see Ean's attempts to throttle the unaffected girl, Shido trying desperately to keep his exchange brother from maiming his possible stalker, Stephanie with a face the shade of a radioactive tomato, Tonomachi sending something to everyone on his phone, and the Gossip Trio talking faster than ever before.

She sighed. It was going to be a long day for all of them.

* * *

Shido watched throughout the day as his redheaded friend wallowed in his own despair, glared holes through Origami's head, and made sure to look literally everywhere besides Stephanie, whose blush still didn't go down. He grinned behind his hand as he noticed Tonomachi silently tapping away on his phone, trying to stifle his laughter. Whatever was making Tonomachi borderline cry while laughing was definitely something he needed to see.

The pictures he snapped from the disastrous first impression, which was already embarrassing enough before being altered, just made him die of laughter. They had overly large anime eyes, Ean's hand was edited onto her breast, and Stephanie was calling him senpai.

He could feel Ean's striking gaze from behind Origami, eyes shining red with malice as he leaned back to glare unblinkingly. Shido was forcing the laughter down before Tonomachi and Ean had another fight, and was literally and thankfully saved by the bell before their physics teacher, Chousoka Beshiyouichi, managed to catch them.

Almost all of their classmates took off for the cafeteria, sans Origami, the trio of boys, and a small number of girls gossiping in the corner, and Stephanie. Ean had taken note of this, tried to psyche himself up to apologize for his actions, only for Stephanie to get up, realize she and Ean were staring down each other like they were in a western standoff, and bolt from the room. Ean's head slammed back down onto Shido's desk.

"Fuck me. This is my life now. I'm the perverted kid that no one likes. My high school life is going to be spent with a three foot buffer around me! I'm gonna be the last picked in any event, people are going to pretend I don't exist or look at me like a disgusting roach and I'll deserve it because I just wanted to introduce myself and I messed it up and _oh god why couldn't I just say hello like a normal human being FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE?!_ "

Tonomachi watched the breakdown, standing awkwardly by as Shido just placed a comforting hand onto Ean's head and murmured sweet nothing until the crying stopped. He counted the seconds that passed, and when he felt that enough time had passed, asked "Yo, guys, wanna get lunch together?"

"Why?! _So I can sexually assault someone else?!_ "

His childish roar made Tonomachi step back in surprise. Ean was actually torn by this, and Tonomachi made sure to never show him the photo he was editing.

Wait.

Shit, he sent it to the entire school.

"He'll be fine," Shido said, smiling. "But we can't get lunch with you today. Kotori is likely waiting at Danny's Diner right now."

Tonomachi's retort of how Ean was certainly _not fine_ was quickly cut off when a siren blared over the loudspeaker, and all of the students quickly realized what was going on, sans the foreigner. He quicker up quickly enough when some of the girls started to shout in a panic and Miss Okamine tried her best to usher them from the room.

"A Spacequake?!"

Shido nodded to Ean as the trio of boys left the room in a hurry, and they assimilated into the flowing crowd of students. They flowed smoothly from the school to a Spacequake shelter on the property, and Shido made sure to keep a close eye out for anyone who fell behind. Damn, what a horrible way for their lunch to start...

He was supposed to see Kotori and every… thing…

" _I'll be here even if a Spacequake happens!_ "

A pit opened up in his stomach. He couldn't keep his terror down and tore into his phone's contact list. Kotori's number was accessed with ease, so he listened to it ringing with a hand tight on his blazer.

" _Hi, this is Kotori! Leave me a message!_ "

No! NonononononoNO!

"Shido," Ean acquiesced as they stood together in line, noticing Shido's rambling across his cell. "Everything okay?"

"I can't reach Kotori," he murmured so just the two of them could hear. Ean paled.

"She wouldn't be out right now. She's not stupid enough to try and stay there to wait for you. There was a shelter right across the street."

Shido agreed silently, but needed to know. He called her number again, waiting in tense silence for the call to pick up so he could hear his little sister's voice again. The call didn't get through, and Shido felt like he was going to vomit on the spot. He knew Kotori, and he was sure she wasn't dumb enough to blatantly throw herself into such a horrible situation, but… she took promises seriously. She claimed to be looking towards the first day of school and getting to know their new family member better. Ean was worried about the bluenette's expression of despair and felt his concern turn to terror. With shaking hands, he pried the device from Shido's grip, doing his best to try and alleviate his stress when he looked to the redhead in shock.

"H-here. I'm going to try the GPS."

Ean pulled up the app with small assistance from Shido, and they waited for it to locate Kotori's cell in suspense. Their eyes followed the loading sign until the map popped up, having found out the girl's location.

"D-Danny's Diner…"

They looked at each other in horror and sped off, tearing down the street in front of the school, ignoring the shouts of their classmates. Their shoes scuffed against the ground in their haste to clear the ground as quickly as possible.

"What the hell is going through your sister's head?!"

"Kotori takes promises too seriously!"

Ean just looked at Shido as they stormed into the commercial district, worried and confused. He remembered her words of that morning, ' _Even if a spacequake happens,_ ' and experienced a tightness in his scars. He didn't like it when she said it, and now he was paying for not opening his dumb mouth.

"That's why she's essentially committing suicide?!"

He didn't get a response, so he wisely shut his mouth and focused on the sprint. Shops were closed up with large metal doors and windows like they were expected to hold against the impending explosion. The trains and railroads had all been transferred underground with the entrances to the shelters. Signs and warnings blurred past in lines, the implications that danger was ahead seen and promptly ignored. All that mattered was the destination and the despair creeping in. They quickly recognized the area, having been there just hours prior, and Shido sped forwards, Danny's Diner just around the corner.

"Turn here!"

Ean followed the bluenette, and both were cut off by… something. It was like an explosion out of nowhere, a dark purple energy that destroyed everything it touched. Neither teen had a chance to stop or even slow down as the spacequake started, the initial sound enough to shatter every glass object within a mile radius. Trying to rationalize what happened didn't assist the teens in the slightest, and they were blown immediately off of their feet by the sudden force smashing down on them. They just shouted in shock and panic as the world was coated in a blinding white light, and pain flowed through their bodies as they hit the ground. It roared through them like a brand on their skin as they ragdolled across the ground, unable to move their bodies or even think. Time moved agonizingly slow, where every second was filled with hitting something hard, dust and rubble assaulting them without an issue. Unconsciousness quickly took them.

* * *

By all means, he should have been dead. Shido managed to pull himself from the ground with aching muscles, his body sore from everything that had happened. The street was reduced to rubble, but he'd miraculously survived. He quickly scanned for his fellow male, hoping to whatever gods out there that he was alright. The groaning from beneath a small slab of concrete told him that he was at least alive.

Shido pulled it off and looked the redhead up and down worriedly. Nothing looked broken, but there was a small cut across his forehead and a small line of blood dripping from it.

"My head…" Ean grumbled, and Shido felt elated to know that he was conscious. He brushed a few stones from his school blazer, and quietly asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a couple of scrapes. Scars hurt though."

Shido winced at the addition, helping the boy up from the ground. Ean's thanks died in his throat as he looked over the destruction just feet away, and he wheeled Shido around as if to ask, " _You seeing this too?"_

Down in the center of the crater was a gilded throne. It shone brighter than any gold they'd ever seen, crafted by someone with seemingly impeccable focus. The back of the seat was easily larger than either of them, but out the top looked like a decorative piece, like a handle. They could have admired it all day, but it was easily overshadowed by the being beside it.

A girl. She was surrounded by destruction and dissipating energy, but she was beautiful in every sense of the word. Long indigo hair flowed like water, partially restrained by a bow strangely reminiscent of a butterfly. Her dress accented her beauty, vibrant and purple, and was distinctly otherworldly with armored plating on her sides and shoulders. She was looking directly at them, a serious visage on her face.

Her eyes narrowed, and she leapt to the top of the throne, seizing the handle jutting from its top and pulling it with a flourish. Out came a blade, a broadsword with a glow around it, and she swung it at them. Energy dispersed from it and tore apart the ground in its direction, barely missing them while shooting past like a firework, and the teens trailed its progress in horror, watching as it collided with a partially destroyed office building and obliterated it.

"What the hell…?"

She was in front of them within a fraction of a second, her glare harder than anyone should ever have to show.

"I see. So you have both come here to kill me as well."

The blade, larger than either of their torsos, stopped its tip right before Shido's neck. A ball of energy, eerily similar to that of a Spacequake, hovered mere inches Ean's face. The speed she'd presented the weapons with was so fast that they didn't even realize what had happened until her purple eyes narrowed. Shido stammered and hit the ground, while Ean was completely frozen in fear for his life. He didn't want to know what that sword could do to him it it blew up a building with ease.

"Y-you're here to… kill someone?"

Shido's mumble was light and brittle, terrified of getting on the wrong side of this girl.

"We're not here to pick a fight," Ean started, paler than a sheet. "W-we're ju-"

She grabbed him by the shirt and hoisted him into the air with fearsome strength, her purple eyes narrowing sharply. Ean wisely shut his mouth, although he let out a sharp exhale when she tossed him away like a ball of trash.

"Enough. I have to deal with you before the others come."

The boys shared concerned looks. Others, as in more people probably capable of evaporating them with a snap of their fingers? And unless they were going to be spirited away to somewhere safe, being _taken care of_ was the most unappealing possibility.

"We're just trying to find someone," Shido exclaimed pleadingly. His strong voice was betrayed by the shaking in his body. The girl took note of such a fact, and despite the prior threat, seemed curious. She stepped towards him, Ean doing his best as a buffer between the two without sparking the rage of the girl's sword.

"Who do you expect to find in this destruction?"

They were trying to find someone who was likely scared out of her mind…

As Shido spoke to the girl about their reasoning, Ean's eyes zeroed in on a dash of red and elation soared through him. He looked closer, expecting to see the younger Itsuka disheveled and scared, but at least alive. He quickly realized it wasn't her, but Ean's eyes couldn't tear away from a large stack of rubble and the crimson liquid leaking from beneath it. All that was visible of the poor soul was an arm reaching for safety.

" _That was almost you,_ " he heard in the back of his head. It wasn't wrong, was it? Just a few feet forwards and the both of them would be completely dead; another tick of the casualty numbers. His chest was tight as he forced himself to look away, only to think the worst case scenario.

Did… they just lose Kotori to the afterlife?

"What's that noise?"

The three looked around, trying to find the source of the loud buzzing that suddenly leapt upon them. It had started out as distant, but the buzzing quickly became more akin to the roar of jet engines. They looked to the sky, seeing lines of smoke in the air coming closer and closer with each passing second.

There were five of them, at first easily mistaken for airplanes. That logic quickly perished as airlines normally had layovers if a Spacequake were to occur, and these forms were smaller and flying way too close to the ground.

No, they were girls. Armored, weapon-bearing, flying robot girls. It was easy to see the robotic armor, but the weapons were shown firsthand when an entire array of missiles came crashing down at the three. The boys screamed out in terror, but were completely ignored by the sword wielding girl, who stepped forwards with a glare.

"Why do they not see that their efforts are pointless?"

The purple haired girl held up a hand and batted the missiles to the side without even touching them, layering the area and the boys in shrapnel and smoke. She ignored the coughing of the boys, more focused on a cannon that was suddenly in her face due to a girl with short white hair. Her face was a mask of anger as she pulled the trigger, and the males regained their composure quickly enough to brace for the gore.

Without even a flinch, she calmly caught the beam with her gloved hand. It was basically the equivalent of her immediately insulting her, and it had the same effect. The blade came up and slashed the gun in half, and would've slashed the girl in two as well if she didn't jump away. The purple haired girl would've advanced, but she was caught in a lynchpin by another girl unloading her cannon in the girl's direction. To protect herself, she held out a hand and a wall of energy appeared. The two boys watched as she was practically leapt upon by another girl, smashing a blade onto the wall again and again in a desperate attempt to break the barrier.

The purple haired girl wasn't having it, and a heel came up and caught the mech girl's stomach, tearing her from the ground and into a projectile. She crashed into one of her teammates, and both had to evade when the blade in the superhuman's hand shot energy after them.

"Plan B!"

They spread to imitate the five points of a star, each girl in every direction tearing forwards at once. Like vultures swooping for their prey, the girls came in one after another, but their target was agile. She danced out of the way with grace, like it was a second nature. By the time they finally realized their plan wasn't working, the girl was glaring angrily at them.

They tried to catch her from every side in a drastic pincer, yet were cut off by the hurricane of energy the girl let out. The girl took to the sky, some ability capable of letting her fly, but gave a quick glance back to the two.

" _Why does she look so sad?"_

Shido didn't get an answer to that one.

A deflected fire of bullets tore at his feet, and only choice the boys had was to throw themselves into the fray. They ducked, weaved, and screamed their way past the chaos while the girls duked it out at levels no human should ever hope to achieve. The match was five against one, but the purple haired girl had no trouble tearing through the defenses against her. Rockets that missed her were either dodged or cleaved into pieces, forgotten by her but not the boys who had to haul ass in panic when they finally did detonate. To the girl, her attackers were annoyances buzzing back and forth like insects: lowly mosquitoes employing hit and run tactics. Finally having had enough, she let energy discharge without an issue. Vibrant energy screamed off of her in waves, blowing everyone back long enough for her to return to her throne and give it a hard kick. It changed into the closest possible thing to a hover board and whirred with power as she boarded it, gripping her blade tightly.

The first mech girl didn't know what hit her. She had just been cocking her cannon when a gash appeared across her stomach. She fell to the ground and didn't move again, blood pooling across the ground around her.

The purple haired girl continued her rampage, shooting around on her vehicle and drawing lines across the ground with her blade trailing her. Energy shot from the cracks like ley lines and glowed angrily when she swung her broadsword again, this time at a girl with black hair who he been so preoccupied with the state of her wounded friend that she didn't realize a blade had buried itself in her stomach. The girl didn't even slow down as she blew past the boys, watching in horrified awe as the battle turned into a life or death struggle.

"This is the part when we run like hell, dude!"

Ean had to physically force Shido to turn away and move when a cannon crashed into the concrete before them, terrified by the noise of it malfunctioning and powering up. It rattled and shook like a faulty firework, one with not enough lift to make it off the ground but still primed to explode. The foreigner hauled his friend down to the ground and tensed for the pain, only to be smashed into the ground as the white haired girl used him as a stepping stone to intercept the weapon's malfunction. The girl seized it and threw it at the purple haired girl, catching her by surprise when it crashed into her and detonated.

"O-Origami?!"

Both boys had recognized the girl, the white hair being a decade giveaway. She turned, a pistol of all things in their faces. The look of anger in her eyes was quickly replaced with the slightest smidge of uncertainty upon seeing the teens in her crosshairs.

"Shido." It was like a gasp, and she quickly holstered her gun, made sure the clothes she was wearing were adequate despite the lack of fabric, and finally stood face to face with him. "You're here?"

"What the hell is happening," Ean demanded, wincing as something exploded mid battle and someone screamed. He looked Origami up and down, and under his breath murmured, "And what are you wearing…?"

"No time. Move."

Without hesitation, she seized the two by their collars and threw them to the side as energy tore by once again, rejoining the battle once she assured the two were safe. Safe was subjective, as she'd thrown them hard enough to send them rolling right into piles of concrete.

"Restrain Princess already! There are innocents on the scene!"

"W-wait," Shido cried out after Origami as he pulled himself back to his feet, despite the incredulous look Ean instantly shot the bluenette. "Leave her alone!"

She heard his voice through the fire of gunshot, and looked at him in such amazement that it was like a child discovering their favorite thing. The joy that had just barely began to spread across her face was cut short by one of the mech girls unleashing a whip that crackled with energy. She brought up a wall of energy by pure instinct, but winced when it shot to where Shido and Ean were, helpless to stop it. Ean took the brunt of the attack to protect Shido, the whip snapping around his neck and discharging. The scream he let out was nothing less than bloodcurdling as the owner of the weapon tried desperately to turn it off and was intercepted by the glowing broadsword going for her torso. His fleshed burned from the electricity as he tried to pry it off weakly, thousands of volts going through him. His unconscious body still writhed as Shido grabbed a slab of concrete and smashed the machine causing the pain. He convulsed in Shido's embrace with panicked breaths, and the bluenette tried desperately to wake him.

"Hey! Ean, stay with me!"

The mecha girls looked to see where the shout originated, realizing that the boy was hurt. They advanced, looking either worried or annoyed, but he didn't care. Shido pulled Ean back, ready to face them off alone.

He didn't need to. Princess slammed down in front of him, her weapon ready as she stood before the boys protectively.

"Leave them alone. Can't you see that you've hurt that human?"

The whips came back out despite the words Princess said, and Shido shied away from them as best he could. He flinched as one of the lines of electricity came tearing at his head, despite the shout Origami gave for a complete halt. The pain never came, as Princess stopped the attack by putting her own arm in the way, gritting her teeth as the electricity coursed into her muscles. Three more whips came to restrain her remaining limbs, but Shido couldn't do a thing to stop it.

Origami scooped him up, grabbed Ean by the scruff of his neck, and began to run. Shido realized then that they weren't coming to try and help them, but were using the boys as bait. He hated to have to think that.

Princess began to glow bright purple, shouting out in anger as she fought against the whips. Origami moved faster when the ground started to shake and splinter around Princess, a clear sign that she was breaking free. It felt like watching an explosion go off in his face: the screaming peaked, the whips snapped, and the force of a car crash hurtled into them.

He was airborne for less than a second, the unconscious body of Ean beside him, and then he felt a strong hand grab him and pull him close. He looked up to see those purple eyes once again, looking down at him with concern, but also with happiness. The fear he had was gone, smothered away by those vibrant eyes and a wide smile.

She set the two of them down gently, shot a glare at the mech girls, and began to shine in a glow even more powerful than the one minutes before. Shido watched right before she vanished, connecting eyes with Princess and conveying the thanks that he could manage as light completely engulfed everything around him.

* * *

The pain in his chest was worse than the accident two years ago. The phantom pains he had were nothing compared to the boiling sensation beneath his skin, making him feel like a living firecracker. Blood was running down into his eyes, making the blue sky above a crimson tint. Noise from every direction was pounding into his head like a railroad spike through his skull. He pulled himself from the ground, stifling a scream of pain at the sickeningly familiar sensation of putting pressure on a broken wrist. People screamed by in a wave of hysteria, running from multiple sources of black smoke that billowed into the sky.

Tengu City was burning to the ground. A giant mass of metal had crashed directly into the center of the city, erupted into flames. It was like a spaceship had crash landed into his new home, a la Wrath of Khan.

He wandered. He didn't know what was so alluring, but something told him to find out and denied his movement in any other direction. He walked methodically, just to take in everything as it ended. Glass rained down from buildings high above him, aided by more glass from numerous car crashes on the street. There was concrete scattered everywhere, mixed with spilled gasoline and blood. It was more morbid than his own close shave with death.

It was at the site of the crashed spaceship that he saw it.

It was surrounded by noise. That was the only way he could describe it. He could see a human figure, but details and specifics were cloaked from every sense. Despite all of that, he could still tell that it was looking at him. He couldn't even move. It was suddenly just right in front of him. The figure pulled him from the ground with ease, hand wrapped around his throat, and took a nice long look at his terrified face.

"You have no clue how sorry I am for this."

It threw him. It wasn't like when the purple haired girl did such; this creature mocked her. He was reduced to a projectile, the force used more than enough to bend his spine painfully. The amount of times he collided with something was more than he could count, yet all he knew was how much it hurt. When he finally stopped, it was quick, painful, and in the side of a half built building.

Pipes protruded out of his chest. He was promised he'd never need to feel the pain again, yet here he was, screaming. Life just loved looking him up and down and hurling her lunch onto his face. Blood was dripping down his chin as he tried to pull himself out, his throat so sore from the screaming that he could only manage to whimper in pain. He was too weak to even make progress, his body screaming for him to stop.

Everything began to blur. The crisp image of the world burning around him dulled away, replaced only by foggy colors and a light in the sky, descending down to the world like a meteor. He wanted to brace himself, but he couldn't. His body denied him that ability.

The light seemed so warm now...

"I've got you. It'll be alright."

White robes, like a toga from Greece, replaced the light. They flowed from some unknown source of wind, moving in tandem with the high blonde ponytail and bangs that adorned her, held down with a gold laurel. Bright pink eyes, full of worry, looked him up and down. She cradled him in her embrace, not minding the blood that was seeping from his clothes and onto hers. How he could see her, he didn't know, but she was the only thing in the universe he could meet eyes with.

"What is it you want? I'll do it for you."

Her voice was like silk, washing over him with a feeling akin to the sound of a mother. She was giving him a wish; a way out.

"I want to live…"

She frowned. She actually pouted at his plea.

"That's not the problem. _She's_ coming back. I want you to be happy before that happens."

What…?!

Bitch. What would make him happy would not be dying. Fuck whoever she was talking about, he had _pipes_ out his chest!

"Pull me out…"

"No."

"Pull me the fuck out."

"Don't take that tone with me, young man!"

Great, now she was berating him like his mother would. He hurt. He was bleeding out, and she was trying to make him feel better - yet failing spectacularly. He had every right to take whatever tone he wanted.

"Protect Shido. Protect Kotori. Please."

He apparently wasn't going to be around, because _somebody_ wasn't going to help him, so he wanted them to be safe. The look on her face was one of surprise, and Ean was about to pull her onto the pipes before she smiled.

"Alright."

He let out a sigh of relief, just letting his senses dull from the white noise.

He still wanted out. Was it too late to change his choice?

"Rest now, Darling. We'll see each other soon."

She put a hand over his eyes, apparently not one to know that you did that after the person died, but it did the job. The screaming and fire faded, replaced with a coat of shadow. The last thing he saw, glowing a bright red in the darkness of unconsciousness, was an eye. It stared him down, and for some reason…

He could tell it was smiling.

* * *

" _I won't ever be wrong again._ "

Shido came to with a bright light attacking his eye and an inability to shut his eyelids. He struggled to regain control of his body, and surprisingly enough, it was given to him. He felt sore, sweaty, and tired. His body ached as he pulled himself up to sit, and it put his face to face with a woman holding a flashlight.

She was in her twenties sat in a chair before him, unarguably beautiful, even despite the unkempt pale blue hair and the dark circles around her eyes. A small patched teddy bear rested in her breast pocket. Something about her was almost familiar to Shido, sparking a warm feeling in his chest.

He felt like he knew her, even though he'd never met the woman in his life.

"W-where am I?"

His voice was hoarse, and the dryness in his throat forced him to hack and cough until a glass of water was pushed into his hands. He nodded thankfully.

"What do you last remember," the woman asked. Her blue eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down, trying to see if there was anything else wrong with him.

At the woman's behest, Shido paused and racked his brain. The day started off so normal. He remembered Ean's failure of a first impression, laughing with Tonomachi, being weary of the break and ready for school, then lunch came and-

The Spacequake. Princess. Origami. Those other girls.

Kotori.

"Wait, my sister! I have to find my sister! She's stuck somewhere, scared, an-"

"What you need is to calm down. Your sister is fine. As is your friend over there."

She pointed to a bed just beside his own, where the taller teen laid silently. He looked terrible. He was paler than usual, enough to give off a sickly look to him. The singe marks around his neck had been covered in gauze and hopefully cleaned, so that worry was gone. His normally tamed copper hair was instead slightly resembling a bush from laying on his pillow, and his face was scrunched up in pain. The woman rolled her chair over, tapping a pen on her knee as he looked him up and down, a small frown on her face.

"He's having a nightmare."

That he was…

Okay, maybe if the woman stopped prodding him with the pen, things would be easier, simpler, an- it's up his nose.

His awakening was much quicker than his own. He gave a snort and his eyes shot open, accompanied with flailing like a fish. He managed to twitch his way off of the bed and crumpled to the ground. His face slapped into the ground, the sound of metal colliding with flesh making the bluenette and the woman watching cringe slightly.

For good measure, mainly to assure himself that the redhead was alive, Shido kicked him in the head. The grumble enough was telling.

"S-Shido," he called into the ground. The bluenette could identify a slight tremble in the boy's voice, so he waited patiently for Ean to continue. "Did you call me darling?"

Shido briefly wondered if he was going insane, and Ean realized that he was just messing up constantly. His face became slightly flushed as he peeled himself off of the floor. His awkward laugh wasn't enough to disregard the topic, so he just mumbled, "Uh… never mind. Where are we?"

They finally scanned their surroundings, quickly realizing how it looked like a movie set in real life. The faux sci-fi area was the least of their problems, and they had heard a small rattle from the woman and had managed to witness her struggle opening a childproof cap on a bottle of pills, get fed up with it, snap it in half against her small desk, and down all of the pills like candies. She laid back and let out a very content moan, then tried to hurl the bottle halves over her head into the trash can. Her aim was terribly off, and they hit the wall behind the two boys. Upon the trash tumbling to the ground, they managed to catch a glimpse of the labels on the bottle, deduced them as sleeping pills, then looked back in horror at the woman, who by all means, should be dying.

She looked fine, despite the bags still under her eyes, and left the boys to realize _oh holy shit she's fucking crazy._

"Hey, lady, can you explain what the hell just happened?"

She lurched up and looked at them like she completely forgot they were in the room. Shido wondered if he should be calling the hospital, because either she was scatterbrained, or the pills were already taking effect.

"That might be better for the Commander," she finally said after making sure the boys actually existed. "I'll lead you two towards the Bridge."

With a dramatic flourish, she rode from her chair and left the room through an automatic door. Ean immediately wheeled to face Shido, a shocked expression that matched the bluenette's own.

"What is happening?"

"I have no idea," Shido murmured, biting his nail and weighing his options. Ean looked to the open doorway, but glanced back to Shido before he decided to act.

"Do we follow the crazy lady?"

"You've got something better?"

Shido followed the woman, and he could hear Ean's agitated groan from behind before the foreigner quickly caught up. They walked through twists and turns that may as well have been part of a maze, following the uniformed woman with tension building. Judging from video game logic and the long silent walk, either the Commander was a huge disappointment, shockingly familiar, or a giant skeleton monster.

The trio stepped into a bright long room with a huge screen at the far wall, displaying the destruction of the Spacequake and Princess standing alone in the center of it. Just moments later, it showed the boys meeting her, and the six people in desks against the walls were all typing furiously on keyboards, their eyes glued to the screen.

"Shido, Ean, glad you could make it. My name is Kyouhei Kannazuki. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The teens jumped as a blond man appeared literally out of nowhere, a wide smile on his face. He regarded the two happily, then nodded his head to the side, where an elevated platform rested with someone sitting atop. Shido's eyes bulged out of his head, and Ean's right eye began to twitch uncontrollably. A very familiar little sister was looking down at the two teens, a lollipop sticking out of her mouth yet again. She sat in the chair like she owned the place: legs crossed, arms folded over her chest, and her grin bordered on a smug smirk.

"Kotori?!"

"Sup, nerds? Reine, thanks for showing them the way."

The tired woman nodded and took to her own seat, joining with the others in analyzing the video.

"What's with the black ribbons," Shido asked, never having seen them before in his life. Kotori always wore white ribbons, that was as natural as breathing for her. To see her wear something so different was actually really unnerving.

She just shrugged in response, popped her lollipop from her mouth, and pointed at the screen with Princess on it.

"Look, that there is a monster known as a Spirit. They come from a separate dimension, which causes the spacequakes that plague Tengu City. However, they-"

"Kotori, just shut up for a second!"

She fixed the offending redhead with a glare, but his frazzled and agitated expression kept her from snapping back. Instead, she delegated him with "Rude," and let him continue.

"Kotori, what is happening? How are you here? Last time we saw, your phone's GPS said you were at Danny's."

She looked just as surprised as they did, and pulled her phone out to look at it with curious eyes. Huh, it did say that. Isn't that convenient?

"Oh yeah! I did promise that, huh?"

She stepped down to them, her bright eyes regarding the two. She saw how disheveled and tense they were, and she blamed herself. Her words got them hurt and terrified, and she was sorry because of that. She slowly brought her hands up to their faces, tears starting to bubble in her eyes. Her pride and her ribbons kept her from crying out to them and apologizing for worrying them, and for once in the Fraxinus, she wished she was just Shido's innocent little sister.

Commander mode was who she was right now. She had to be strong. She was close with the crew, but Elliot Baldwin Woodman taught her that being a commander meant being strong no matter the situation. She had to be fierce, but still kind.

So she slapped the shit out of them. She disregarded their shocked shouts and backhanded them again and again, grinding her teeth until sparks shot out.

"Why the hell did you two morons run out into the middle of a Spacequake zone like that?! Did you want to get yourselves killed?!"

She let the redheaded boy collapse onto the ground, grabbed Shido by the collar, and ruthlessly slapped his head back and forth.

"I thought better of you, Shido!"

Her brother was _not_ supposed to be this stupid! He was smart and caring and responsible and _intelligent enough to know she wouldn't be trying to kill herself!_ When her brother's face was sufficiently smacked red, her gaze snapped onto Ean's like a wild animal, the fellow redhead squeaking in terror.

"And you! Aren't you supposed to be helping us out when you're here?! You let him run out into danger!"

"Not really my choice! We were more worried about you, dipshit!"

She held her glare until he had literally cowered himself into the corner and sighed, turning on her heel and returning to her chair. Reine was watching quietly, waiting for the queue to disengage the filter and give the newbies something else to chat about.

It had actually started out as an accident: the filter situation. When [Deep Love] Minowa had joined Ratatoskr, she accidentally disengaged the filter and screamed her lungs out, and Kannazuki teased her for weeks. When the same experience happened for [Dimension Breaker] Nakatsugawa, it became akin to an initiation. Everyone always got a laugh out of it, but Kotori's current mood was dampening the mood.

"Just show them before I burst a blood vessel…"

Everything surrounding them became suddenly transparent, giving them a view of the city below. Shido panicked and jumped back, but Ean tapped into his inner cat and leapt four feet into the air. The crew of the Fraxinus howled with laughter, and the faces of the boys turned even deeper shades of red.

They looked down over the city, and Ean recalled the sight from the airplane as he came to Tengu. He thought how strange it was that it was built in a crater before, but after coming face-to -face with a Spacequake, the spiral motif that the city had made so much more sense that it wasn't even funny. The filter reappeared, and Kotori could only smile smugly down at the two.

God, she loved freaking people out, didn't she?

"Welcome to the Fraxinus."

* * *

"As I was saying, Spirits. They're strong, dangerous, easily set off, and more. You encountered Princess today."

Ean, no matter how he tried, couldn't wrap his head around what was happening. His nightmare had a giant ship crashed into Tengu City, one he'd never seen in his life, and if he was correct, he was now standing on that very ship. Did that mean the figure that attacked him was real too? The girl who promised to keep the Itsuka's safe?

This didn't seem safe in any way. Tatsuo and Haruko couldn't be okay with this, right? They'd freak out if they heard that Shido and Kotori were part of some crazy supernatural conspiracy, wouldn't they?

"What about your parents," Ean questioned the girl with a concerned expression. "Do they know about you pulling a Captain Kirk?"

Kotori gave a sideways glance to her fellow redhead, and he quickly realized that she didn't get the reference and he looked like an idiot in front of a bunch of people, judging by the light snickering that came from Kannazuki and the others onboard.

"Mom and Dad work for Asgard Electronics, who create Realizers which we use to restore the damage caused to the city. In fact, multiple companies worldwide do that same, like Astaroth Developments, electricity conglomerates, and the Kirijo Corporation in Tatsumi Port Island," she regurgitated. The glaze that suddenly covered her eyes spoke of how many times she'd gone over paperwork regarding such companies. However, she snapped back and nodded to Kannazuki, who came rushing up with a pile of folders in his gloved grasp.

"We've got some records of known Spirits, including Princess. I suppose you guys would like to know a bit more about what just happened, right?"

Kannazuki spread them out over a small open desk, stepping back to let the boys see. There were numerous folders, and Shido took equal time looking at each one, genuinely curious about the supernatural beings. He was busy going over one tilted with the code name of Efreet with acute interest as Ean scoured Princess's document. Danger: the only thing he could see reading it. If the spacequake generated which had destroyed an entire district was classified as a B, he never wanted to witness what an A, or worse, an S, was capable of. Her Angel, which he assumed was her broadsword, was the rating of triple A, as was her risk factor and her 'Astral Dress'.

"Why are we here?"

It was a question that was tickling the back of the redhead's mind for a while. Sure, airships, AST, Spirits, whatever. Why didn't Kotori just drop them back home and claim that they were found after the destruction?

"We want to induct you into Ratatoskr."

She spoke about what she wanted of them, peacefully talk down the Spirits, while avoiding the anger of the AST and other groups against the existence of Spirits. This… this was insane to Ean. A secret world of supernatural creatures and people in mechs fighting against one another. Just being in the middle of the conflict that Princess had caused made Ean imagine his own dead body, torn apart from the force of… whatever the Spirit had. He could never even think of trying to join this mess of supernatural beings fighting the government. In fact, he thought the AST was right to try and kill the Spirits. How many people had they killed like those two girls were in the battle? If that type of monster found her way into the public, the death would be catastrophic.

"I'll do it."

Shido spoke first, only leaving his friend behind. He could help that girl, find the reason she looked so distraught and remove it. It was the way he'd pay her back for keeping the AST off of him while he was protecting Ean. He flashed a small smile to his redheaded friend, missing the look of mortification, then looked up to meet the smug grin on Kotori's face.

"I'll join Ratatoskr. I want to help the Spirits."

Ean grabbed the bluenette before he could dig himself down further, quickly excusing them as they stepped from the bridge into the close corridor. He ignored Shido's indignant complaints until they were far enough from the door so they wouldn't be heard by the group, shoving him roughly enough to leave the boy staggering. The copper haired boy pushed his way directly into Shido's personal bubble, flustered enough to stop thinking and just talk.

"Are you insane?! You want to go and fight that bad?"

He didn't intend to start shouting, but paranoia was getting the better of him.

"I'm not going to be fighting! I just-" Shido held his hands up innocently and managed to look somewhat apologetic as he spoke. "I just want to help her. She looked so sad. I want to talk to her."

Shido blushed a bit, but led to Ean being even more perplexed with his reasoning. He was seriously doing this over a crush?! No girl was worth so much to walk into guaranteed death! It was suicide!

"You…"

"Ean, you don't need to join, too. I just-"

"You're a _fucking_ idiot!" His shout tore at his already sore throat, but he _needed_ to get this across. Life wasn't going to go all butterflies and rainbows! "Are you that desperate to throw your life away?! You want to get caught up in that mess?!"

"W-where is this coming from?"

Ean slammed Shido against the metal wall, his fists clenched around the boy's collar. He didn't want to hurt him, but his emotions were so haywired that he couldn't calm down.

"We almost died today! We were almost disintegrated by a shockwave that blew up a skyscraper! The AST didn't seem to have any qualms engaging a Spirit with a triple A in risk while two idiots were in the area! Do you not remember the missiles, bullets, explosions, and everything else under the goddamn sun flying at our faces?!"

Shido paled, remembering that very thing. But he couldn't get Princess out of his head. She saved them.

Ean was unconscious by then, wasn't he? No wonder why he was so panicked...

"We were safe. Princess protected us."

"Princess protected herself! The AST -Anti Spirit Team, if you can remember- is trained to kill Spirits! What happens when you accidentally get in the way when trying to 'talk' with a girl able to blow up half a fucking district?!"

Ean was shaking as he demanded to know the answer to Shido's delusion. He couldn't even meet the bluenette's eyes, and his teeth were pushed so hard together that he looked like a child trying to hold back from crying.

He was scared. He was so damn terrified of what had happened - what could happen - that he didn't even know where to start.

"Why wouldn't you help?"

"Because I'm a _human_! We break, Shido! We die! You can't seem to get that prospect through your thick skull!"

He felt his bones shatter into pieces once in his life, and never wanted to experience it ever again. This seemed like a one way ticket into losing everything. He couldn't let Shido into that, not while his family still cares about him!

"I'm not going to die! The Fraxinus could-"

"You're trusting a bunch of people you know nothing about! You didn't know that Kotori was even a part of this before today, and she is their leader!"

He caught himself before he could shout any more. Shido's face was a mask of emotions and thoughts that Ean couldn't even begin to try and decipher.

"I'm trying to help you from making one of the biggest mistakes of your life here."

"Isn't that my decision in the end?"

His tone was terse and clipped. Brown eyes met in a battle of their spirits, where heated common sense rivaled cool passion and gut feeling. Shido managed to remain calm in the face of Ean's warranted rage. He could see where the boy was coming from, but it was what he needed to do. Kotori was asking for his help for a reason, especially when she could've easily dumped him back in his bed and let life continue on like normal. If there was a slightest chance she could've kept him out of the danger, then he wouldn't be standing on the Fraxinus that very moment.

This was his job. A requirement he needed to fulfill.

"I don't know if this is the right choice. I don't know if I can even do anything substantial, but I need to try. Stay if you want. Join Ratatoskr. I don't mind if you don't. Hell, you can even leave altogether, go back to North America and forget that any of this happened."

The negative look on the redhead's face explained that that possibility was not an option. Shido could've felt his emotions brighten if they weren't currently locked down.

"But please," he continued, adopting an angry expression resembling his adoptive father's. "Don't even think of telling me what I should be doing with my life. Save it for after you get yourself pulled together."

Shido left Ean standing there in the room, the foreigner scared, angry, offended, and miserable all at the same time. Why didn't he understand…? He was trying to help the ignorant bastard! He didn't need to see another person be killed because he wasn't there to dissuade them. He needed his parents with him that night, practically begged them to join on his last day of therapy. They were dead because he couldn't convince them. They said he should be comfortable enough to handle it alone.

He wasn't. He wasn't, but they were dead because they couldn't listen. He could hear Shido's footfalls as a constant fact that he was failing yet again.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

He punched the metal wall hard enough to leave a dent and almost screamed in pain and agitation. His hand felt like it shattered, but since when had his physical condition meant anything? He was supposed to bounce back from the pain stronger than ever, never giving in.

He wanted to collapse. He wanted to act like a brat and tantrum. Cry alone in the hallway. Punch, kick, and scratch until his dumbass of a brother got some common sense. None of it would change a thing, but he just couldn't handle it. He just kept seeing the possibilities in his head where it could all go wrong. Shido says the wrong word and gets slashed in half without a second thought. Stand between the Spirit and the AST and be filled with bullets. Trapped in a spacequake and reduced to a number on the casualty rate.

He cared about Shido and Kotori. There wasn't a way to deny that. Sure he and Kotori never spoke much, but they were getting better. He and Shido were bonding over the stupidest things. Tatsuo and Haruko had welcomed him into their home.

He couldn't lose them too… he just couldn't.

* * *

"Tobiichi-san?"

Origami was nursing her side on the eleventh, but still looked to the boy who looked out of his comfort zone, responding silently to his attempt at gaining her attention. He had large bags under his eyes and a distracted gaze, clear signs of not having had sleep. His uniform was unkempt, as was his copper hair, which had been relatively tame the day prior. When he failed to continue the conversation, Origami let her patience end.

"You're the exchange student. What is it?"

He jumped a bit only to quickly recover his nerve.

"It's about what happened after the quake," he stated quietly, looking for eavesdroppers who might stumble into a secret. It did catch her interest, however. Not only did he remember the events of the day prior, but he knew information regarding them. The report stated that both he and Shido had vanished when the light spread, much to Origami's anger. She believed Shido had been a casualty, and it would've spelled horror for the Spirits who dared step foot on their world. He ushered her to the hall, but Origami took the lead and pulled him even further away, wanting total privacy for what the boy had to say, hoping to know what had happened after their disappearance.

"Shido wants to meet the Spirit again," he claimed worriedly.

She smashed him against the wall. His pained gasp meant nothing to her; by that point, he was a machine to shake information from. She didn't understand what that meant in Shido's case, but it was practically suicide for anyone.

"What?"

"I tried to talk him out of it, but he's not listening! He's going to get himself killed!"

This was not how she believed the conversation would've gone. She brought him to an empty stairwell and only expected questions about what had happened. To hear his immediate declaration that Shido wanted into the mess of Spirits and on the AST's radar hurt. His eyes killed any chance that it was a joke, but it rendered her suspicious.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you know both him and Spirits. You're in the AST. Your job is to keep innocent people safe."

No. Her job was to kill Spirits. To avenge her parents. That's all she ever cared about.

"Please, keep him safe." His choked plead almost caught her off guard. "I don't want him getting hurt."

He walked away, turning his pale expression from her. He'd make a good Wizard if all he wanted to do was protect someone else. That was respectable in anyone.

...

What was his name again?


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh my lord, thank you to everyone who has left reviews! I'm glad that people have been enjoying this story so far, and I've been enjoying every second of writing it!**

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

It was unfair.

It wasn't as if Ean didn't care. That would be the most idiotic thing to believe. He cared just as much as Shido did.

They just cared about different things, is all. Shido cared about the distant future; the best ending he could get. Ean cared about making it to the next day without losing his head.

He detested sitting around like a bump on a log. He felt like he should do _something_. Even his own body hated the feeling of uselessness, judging by how tight and painful the scars across his chest were.

The past few days were agonizing. The tension between him and the Itsuka siblings was practically tangible. Kotori was a bit disappointed, but she made sure to tell him that he made a choice that anyone would've. It was ironic for the Commander of the very organization he was wary of to assure him against helping. Even so, it showed that she cared.

It would be childish to say by that logic, since he and Shido had little to no communication, that Shido essentially didn't care. That notion was dead wrong.

Shido consistently shot him little pleading looks, somehow always when his guard was at its lowest. It made it that much harder to keep up the silent treatment Ean was going for. How so many emotions and pleas could fit into something as normal as someone's eyes was beyond him. Shido found ways to make it work. Fear kept Ean from trying to break the tension.

He didn't want to die, so why was it wrong to want them to be safe too? To not want to lose another family? Shido of all people should understand where he was coming from. The despair of losing an entire family was something the orphaned teen had engraved in his very soul.

But he just had to help the Spirits, didn't he? He had that doofy look on his face whenever Ean realized the bluenette was thinking about Princess. A girl he knew literally nothing about beside the fact that she had superpowers, and he was captivated.

Shido was going to throw himself into a world of people trained to murder, inhuman creatures that caused the Eurasian Sky Disaster thirty years ago, and an entire conglomerate dedicated to assisting the Spirits. The guy panicked when he was pushed into a room with his stalker. He was going to die.

It was worse because of how fate seemed to make fun of him. Ean couldn't blame the Spirits because they were already around, but he couldn't blame Shido because he felt he had a reason.

What was worse? A human driven only on instinct, or a human so broken by instinct that he no longer had a drive?

"I just wanted to be normal…" he mumbled quietly, looking down to the concrete floor three floors down. Would anyone even care anymore if he jumped right now? Could he even do anything useful?

He could bitch, whine, and scream alone. On the other hand, he could run face first into Death's embrace alongside his fellow teens. What a great set of choices he had.

His desire to tell fate to die in a fire was prematurely prevented when he felt his chest begin to tighten, like the world itself was laughing at him.

" _Damn it, and to top it all off, an episode._ "

He maneuvered to his knees just as the pain set in. The scars hurt significantly worse this time. It felt like a foreign object was tearing his torso apart from the inside out. He just held his chest and tried to ride it out silently.

The pain resided. The daggers kept pushing through his chest.

Damn Shido.

Damn the Spirits.

Damn the scars constricting and hurting him.

Damn the tears running down his face.

"Why can't you just see where I'm coming from," Ean choked out as if Shido were right beside him. He could delude himself that things were fine. Ignore the Spirits and live life normally, one with the knowledge that something more was happening and there was no need to act upon it.

But if he wanted his family to be safe, he'd have to act. Now if he knew what to act _upon,_ things would be so much easier.

"You."

He jumped when the voice carried to him. Dread began to sink into his body, as if his very nerves were telling him that his bad day was likely about to get even worse. He glanced back from the concrete path below, meeting eyes with the pinkette that he'd unceremoniously rammed into days before. The girl who hurried away without even giving him a chance to apologize. Not that he had a chance now: not with how mad she looked.

She stomped right up to him, teeth grit together so hard that they had a chance of shattering. He didn't realize that he'd been slapped until he felt flesh split when one of her nails dragged with it. Blood instantly beaded on his cheek, but he just stayed quiet and took it like a man.

After all, he deserved it. He was just trash on the side of the road.

 _Forgettable._

"Why," she demanded of him, her face contorted into a visage of anger. "Why me?!"

He was so focused on the pain in his face that he didn't hear her until she shouted a second time. He didn't know what to say, and he felt that he couldn't if he did. It was a snake wrapping around his torso and throat: constricting and terrifying all at once. One with pink hair and blue eyes.

He tried to rid himself of the blockage in his throat. Wanted to tell her that it was his fault, and that he was sorry. The words didn't come to him.

"I just wanted one day," she declared with a finger in his face, stalking towards him like a lion against a baby elk. "One day where I could just enjoy being myself! Then you just had to run up and pin me to the damn ground!"

She prodded him in the chest with a finger, unknowingly jabbing him right on a scar. He almost doubled over in pain, but she shoved him away before he could. He collided hard against the railing and gasped as pain blossomed across his back.

"Did you enjoy it?! Did you enjoy making me look like a fool?"

"I'm sorry…" he croaked out despite the tightness of his throat.

"Oh, you're sorry! Oh, that makes it all better! I'll make sure everyone knows that you're sorry for coping a feel!"

He didn't even-! Forget it. Why was she pushing so hard? Did it affect her so much that she just _had_ to say something about it? He said he was sorry. She had to know it was an accident! Yet when he opened his mouth in an attempt to tell her that very thing, no words came out. It just left him looking akin to the moron he felt like.

"What? What?! Do you want to try to explain yourself?! If you give me another bullshit apology, I swear-"

He had to say it. He _needed_ to say something before this got even worse.

" _I'm not going to cry…_ _I'm not… going to…"_

"I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry," he mumbled, his voice breaking as he even managed to mess _that_ up. He heard Stephanie scoff, and what little respect he had left for himself shattered like a plate against the floor.

"What's _your_ problem? Did I make the closet pervert cry?"

The snake around him tightened its coils across his entire body. Everything that happened lately was like chains around his limbs, weighing him down and dragging him under. The scars across his chest were burning with pain, tearing him apart from the inside.

Maybe it was the stress, or that he didn't have breakfast, but everything _hurt._

First, Spirits, that nightmare on the Fraxinus, the fight with Shido, constant self-doubt, _always thinking he was wrong_. Now he was getting a verbal ass-kicking because of an accident?!

 **It's Ean!**

 **Look at him. He's brain dead.**

 **Poor guy.**

 **I heard he tried to commit suicide.**

" _Don't look at me with those eyes._ "

 **Nah. He probably stumbled into it.**

 **I feel bad that he's always sitting alone.**

 **Fuck 'em. He's just the freak.**

" _I'm not a freak._ "

 **Watch him become a school shooter…**

 **Maybe that's why his friends left him. I'd be scared for his life if he was my friend.**

 **You know that girl he likes? She insulted him in front of the entire school!**

 **Wait, what did she say?**

" _Stop making me something I don't want to be!_ "

 **She said that the reason she'd never like him…**

 **It's because he was a mistake.**

"I said I'm sorry, alright?! I fucked up," he finally exploded. His nerves were abuzz with a combination adrenaline and pure anger. She was just like them. Intent on being another face in the crowd of people who wanted to finally break him. It hurt more than his scars because _they finally managed it_.

He needed to cling to Shido. It was his very subconscious latching onto the one person who seemed to actually care about him.

"I understand that my mistake made your day hell! Would you like to cram it down my throat _anymore_?!" He collapsed to the floor, and he just wanted it to swallow him whole. Stephanie was looking at him in complete and utter shock and disbelief. It was just another person looking at him like he _didn't belong._

There was no way in hell he was just going to let a stranger tear him apart when he couldn't even stop the people that mattered from doing the same.

"You've really hammered home the fact that I'm a TERRIBLE FUCKING HUMAN BEING! So why don't you just leave me the hell alone?! I'm sorry! If anything, you've just cemented the fact that I'm the living personification of a punching bag!"

She was left grasping at straws, but anger took over for logic.

"What the hell do you have to be mad about?! I was the one you made look like an idiot in front of everyone!"

"I was trying to introduce myself," he shot back, shaking with anger and exhaustion and regret. "My fucking nerves got in the way and I screwed it up like everything I've done in my life!"

"Well it's just _great_ to know that the entire day was just me suffering for _your_ problems," she snapped back ruthlessly, and it felt like a strike at his ribs.

"You think I don't know that?! You think I haven't realized that I'm an absolute mess with two left feet and confidence issues?! I haven't a moment of peace for three days because I keep reflecting on what I did wrong that day, and my hopes for a way to escape problems that have haunted me for years suddenly decided let all my faults have a meet up and kick me in the dick!"

When he finally stopped, it wasn't because he'd run out of things to yell about. Two years of just staying silent as he was unfairly judged led to an unimaginable buildup of things he could say. He stopped because he needed to breathe; collect himself before he did something rash. He couldn't keep himself from glaring long and hard at her as his eruption finally ended, waiting to see if there was something - _anything_ \- for her to say to set him off and let him vent some more.

He turned away, however. There wasn't a need to be getting into any impulsive scuffles. He was supposed to be better than this. His parents wouldn't be proud of him if he continued.

He just wanted Stephanie to leave him alone. Swear and stomp off. Maybe even push him off the side of the building and leave him to die. He knew it wouldn't make him happy, but he'd be damned if he said he didn't have a desire for that very event.

He didn't expect a hand on his shoulder.

He glared back with a fierceness that promised that he didn't have qualms with biting her hand off, but the pinkette didn't release his shoulder.

"I certainly doubt that you've been moved to tears because you groped me in the middle of class," she sighed, fixing her blue eyes back on him with a glare. Ean curled further into himself. "Are you gonna spit it out already? Crying alone up here isn't going to help."

She had the gall to insult him after all of that?! Furthermore, why the hell would she want him to share his problems?!

Who would want to know the problems of a mistake?!

"It wasn't a suggestion," she added, her eyes narrowing. Ean returned the glare tenfold, tossing himself onto the railing between life and and the concrete below. If it would get her out of his hair, he'd spill.

"My friend is a fucking moron who is pulling the equivalent of throwing himself into a volcano, and no matter how hard I screamed or ignored his attempts to string me along, it feels like _I'm_ in the wrong."

It was quiet for long after he spoke. He didn't know what Stephanie was thinking, nor did he care anymore. There was a bit of a hope in his chest that she'd leave soon, but the lack of retreating footsteps squashed that dream.

"Come on. Let's get that cut on your face bandaged," she said as she jerked her head in the direction of the stairwell. Ean remained glued to the railing, morosely watching her before his eyes flicked back down to the concrete below.

"Why would you care?"

The silence was telling. She seemed to realize the same thing that he did, clearing her throat in a feeble attempt to regain her voice.

"Because I caused… that," she murmured, waving her hands in what seemed to be an attempt to rationalize his actions. The anger in her face was gone, replaced with guilt that Ean scoffed at.

"Just leave me the hell alone."

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him from the railing, unwilling to comply, forcing him to dart towards her to prevent faceplanting. He tried to pull his arm away, but her hand was like a vice.

"Hey! Let go!"

She ignored his demand, just continuing to drag his unwilling form away. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, incapable of moving to anywhere near him.

"Let me go and just leave me a-"

"I'm trying to _apologize_ ," she finally shouted. Her voice shook as she finally said it. His demand to be left alone caught in his throat. She frogmarched his dazed figure from the rooftop with an air of responsibility, directing him to the infirmary in silence. He found himself deposited onto the awkwardly small, chemical scented bed, watching the waist length pink hair move about the room and go through the drawers quietly.

She was… actually trying to say that she was sorry?

"I'm sorry for pushing you too far," she stated as she rifled around for the necessary items to clean his cut. "I was pissed, and some stressful shit popped up over the past few days. I used you as a way to relieve my own anger."

"It's…" he trailed off, trying to ignore the uncertainty in his soul. She was trying to make amends. He could at least respect her for that. "It's fine. Everyone needs to vent every once in a while."

She didn't continue by talking, but rather by soaking a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol.

"You're awfully forgiving," she grinned with an eyebrow raised. "Your volcano sacrifice friend should be jealous."

Ean gave a small chuckle at the jab against Shido. Lord, he _really_ needed better ways to describe the whole situation.

"From what I've seen of him so far, specifically him willingly sitting next to his stalker who tried to take his first time in the back of an arcade, I'd reconsider that statement."

Stephanie gave a hearty laugh at that one, taking the chance to wipe across his face with the rubbing alcohol.

"Ow!"

Stephanie just sighed exasperatedly as Ean winced.

"Don't be such a wimp," she muttered playfully, backing away as Ean's hand flew up to his face with a childish blush on his cheeks. He grunted as she pulled his hand away and went back to cleaning the unnaturally deep cut. "I've seen scratches that are much worse, you know."

"I don't like getting hurt…"

Her eyes flicked back up to his own. He quickly pondered the thought that she understood his second meaning: his phobia of pain.

"If you did, you'd be a masochist," she agreed. He shifted uncomfortably at the implication, thinking back to those weird twins at the arcade. At least he'd never have to deal with their antics ever again.

"Sit still already," Stephanie grinned as she flicked him on the forehead.

"Sit still? What're you gonna do to me, Nurse Yaria?" He grinned widely as he spoke, animatedly wiggling his eyebrows with childlike glee. She glared at him with a deadpan expression, but the edges of her lips turned up slightly.

"Shut your whore mouth. I know plenty of guys who would die to be taken care of by a girl as hot as me."

" _Hot_ ", he wondered sassily, looking her up and down as discreetly as he could manage with her literally inches away from his body. " _Ha! Mediocre at best._ "

"Why did you stop talking? Oi. Answer me."

He gave a concerned chuckle. She returned it with a hard stare. The silence permeated.

" _Never touching that topic again,_ " he thought, seeing his life flash before his eyes.

Stephanie had shed her blazer somewhere along the line, likely annoyed by the awkward heat of the room. Her dress shirt clung close to her body, and while Ean could've been distracted by the curves of a woman - curse his hormones - he was more focused on her arms, where he could see small bandages running up from her wrists beneath her sleeves. When she finally finished tending to his cheek, she glanced to her arms almost agitatedly, like they were insulting her.

Something about those wraps just looked wrong. Most were sloppily done, like she was in pain while applying them.

"What happened to your arms, Yaria?"

She jumped as he pointed it out, like she'd completely forgotten about the bandages. Surprise bloomed on her face, not having expected the wraps to have been noticed, distaste quickly replacing the feeling.

"I fell down the stairs at home. I've got some pretty nasty bruises now."

He pondered what she said and everything presented to him, coming to the conclusion that something was wrong. He had his fair share of stumbles down the staircase at home during his physical therapy. Never before had he experienced enough pain to have trouble wrapping bruises.

"Are…"

He hesitated. Was it really his problem? Everyone got embarrassing injuries sometimes.

" _But she's trying to hide them,_ " his brain reminded him. " _You can't really disregard that fact._ "

"Are you sure those are from falling down the stairs?"

Her blue eyes shot back to his brown, sharp and dangerous.

"Positive."

"Bu-"

She grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall. It reminded him of the tinge of pain from when he hit the railing earlier, but he pushed the reminder away to stare hard at the girl who was assaulting him once again.

She seemed like a scared animal. There was desperation and anger in her eyes that shouldn't have been brought on by someone pointing out an injury. Thankfully, she quickly realized what she was doing and pulled away like she'd been burned.

"Sorry… I… lost control there."

The conversation ended after that, and the two sat in an uncomfortable silence. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to blame her, so he just helped as she packed up the cleaning materials, quietly trailing her with his eyes as she began to leave.

"Hey, McBride."

She stopped just out of the room. Her blue eyes seemed to glow as the sunlight silhouetted her figure. She looked imposing, impressive, and terrifying all at once. He just sat quietly, giving a small smirk as she sighed in annoyance, eager to be a thorn in her side as payback.

"I thought about your friend from what little you said," she stated with an accusatory tone, like she expected to have more than a sentence to work with. Ean's smirk molded into a grin.

She knew, and it seemed to him like she was resisting the urge to throw something at his head as she finished her statement.

"If you can't stop whoever you're worried about, you can at least protect him, right?"

It was as if the clouds parted with her words. He hadn't thought about that once.

He could protect?

If Shido was so hellbent on meeting Princess again, then maybe… just maybe, Ean could protect him. He wasn't a Wizard, nor anywhere close to a physical peak. He couldn't run in with a knife or rusty pipe and expect to come out of it kicking. That didn't mean he couldn't become the person he needed to be.

That only led to another problem. He'd need help.

He'd told Origami about Shido's stubbornness - " _That might have been a mistake…"_ he thought, thinking back - and he seriously doubted that she'd happily train him to fight, likely against the AST. The emotionless girl would, instead, likely tear his skin from his bones and wear it to get closer to to the Itsuka family, especially if she believed it would work.

Speaking of the Itsuka Family, maybe Tatsuo and Haruko would give him ideas. The two of them were Realizer technicians, knew about Spirits, and were allies of Ratatoskr: if anything, they'd know a Wizard or two that were willing to teach him.

Or… he could ask Kotori.

With the time it took for him to ponder all of that, Stephanie had excused herself to leave him along with his thoughts. He only snapped from his stupor when he heard the door click shut.

Did he really want to be alone again?

He followed her out the door and behind her as she power walked away. His stomach grumbled as he jogged after her, finally getting close enough to snag her shoulder. She spun back in surprise, meeting the grinning mask of the foreigner.

"Hey… do you wanna eat lunch together?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot, but he just kept smiling. She caved quickly after realizing this wasn't him giving her a choice, and gave a disgruntled grin.

"Come on, dork. If you keep me from my bento, I'll give you something to actually cry about."

* * *

"ALL RIGHT! I did it!"

The sound of joyful declaration reached through every corner of the house, snapping the lone boy to attention. Kotori sat silently as footfalls increased in speed and volume to the point where the girl was worried Shido was falling down the stairs, only for her fear to be quenched when the door the the living room practically exploded open. Shido pushed in, malnourished and yet boisterous as he connected gazes with his sister, who was sprawled comfortably on the couch with the news playing on the television. She baited the social cue for a moment before he caved, asking the question that would change everything.

"What did you do?"

She seriously shouldn't have asked, as Shido was in a mood.

"I finished my training! I'm ready to help the Spirits!"

As proof, the Japanese boy hefted his _entire computer_ , i.e. his monitor, his CPU, his _second_ monitor, and the precariously balanced mouse on top, onto the sofa. Kotori smirked at the display before her, looking to the monitor for answers. Before her sat a still image, partially covered in Japanese text, but it was intriguing to see a girl who looked eerily similar to her in what seemed like a spacesuit.

Flying off to Jupiter in a spaceship.

Leaving the marshmallow of a protagonist to wave goodbye.

"Didn't I tell Kannazuki to make this less cheesy?"

The question hit the air and promptly died, as Shido had taken to pumping his fists up and down to remove the adrenaline from his body, and in turn was dashing from the room, accompanied only by an unidentifiable screech of teenage proportions.

If Kotori wasn't laughing before, she certainly was now.

The thirteen-year-old let her little chuckling subside, once again looking to the screen. The name of the chapter was titled " **Loving you Outta this World!** "

Ironic, considering what they were up against.

Oh, and she couldn't help but see the fraction beneath said title.

" **¼ Complete.** "

"Shido, you moron! You're only a quarter of the way done! And that's not counting the secret fifth route were you break the fourth wall and the protagonist ends up romancing a living, breathing person!"

 **You need to change it.**

W-what the hell?!

An unfamiliar girl's voice felt like it was practically on top of her. It sounded so serious that Kotori jumped out of her skin. What worried her was that she didn't have her Ratatoskr earpiece in, so she shouldn't be hearing any voices anyways.

The house was normal. The room was normal. Shido was still parading himself about. There was no indication that anything was different, but the voice was loud and clear. It felt like someone was right beside her, talking in the voice.

That had never happened before…

 **Change it, Itsuka.**

She jumped as the girl's voice rattled out again, like an itch in the back of her mind. It was otherworldly. _Unholy_.

" _Camael…?_ "

What was she supposed to change? What was so serious that her Angel was trying to warn her about?

It felt like someone was forcing alcohol up her nose, and her migraine returned with an angry passion. She inhaled in pain, immediately wanting to sleep. How she managed to navigate from the living room was considered luck, but quickly became a miracle as she pulled herself up the stairs, brushing by her fellow redhead as she staggered to her room. He asked something from beyond the ringing that began to appear in her ears, but she could honestly care less about him currently.

Ean had barely managed to stop her door from slamming into him. The buzzing in her ears was getting louder, and if he needed to say something, he needed to make it quick.

"What do you want?" she asked gruffly, trying to keep her ever growing migraine from splitting her head in two. He looked weak under her glare, with bags under his eyes and unkempt hair. But something was different with him.

"I need to ask you something."

His voice was cold and serious when he finally spoke. The look in his eyes was one of resolve that matched Shido's. Kotori winced a bit as she gazed into the brown orbs, and something close to fear snuck into her.

For a split second, she thought he was about to hit her.

 **You shouldn't trust him.**

No, this was the kid who tried to hide after his breakdown, embarrassed to be in even the same room as her and Shido. She doubted she'd even hurt a fly.

 **If he was capable.**

She flinched as the voice spoke again, but grit her teeth and ignored it. Ean would get suspicious, no matter how **dumb he was**.

" _Damn it, stop that!_ "

"I have a… proposition," he mumbled, eyes flickering to check for the bluenette, who was still parading around downstairs.

She stopped. Something changed in Ean eyes.

Was that a trick of the light? The kid who found himself wound into their mess? It was normal for Shido; she noticed it happening more frequently after he sealed off Camael all of those years ago. At first, she had been terrified that it meant that something was wrong her brother because he took the Spirit Mana into his body.

But years passed without conflict. Shido's personality never changed. He was never unnaturally hostile, uncaring, or anything else. Her worries seemed unfounded.

But _Ean_? The kid she had to drag into their mess was going through the same thing? She knew him for eight days, barely knew a thing about him despite that he feared what he couldn't understand.

No. No, it had to be some hallucination, caused by whatever was making that voice in her head. The kid was normal as possible.

But even despite that, she swore that his eyes just flashed red…

"Go on…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

"Kotori, I'd rather not be left in suspense like this," Shido grumbled, walking after his sister. Kotori had pulled him from the comfort of his own bed and into the cold prison that was the Fraxinus and its overly air-conditioned corridors. He still needed to get to school, and more importantly, talk with Ean. Being abducted by his little sister for whatever she needed wasn't a part of the agenda.

"Trust me, you want to see this."

Shido looked strangely at his little sister, whose grin never faded. She stepped through the door and led him down yet another corridor, before stopping at a door and gesturing for him to walk through first. The bluenette's suspicion hit an all-time high.

This felt like another one of her pranks. He wouldn't put it past her to lord over his old chuunibyou days if he didn't comply with her demands.

Dear God, if Ean ever got word of "Roaring Blast Flash Wave," Shido's life would be over. He'd never be able to live it down. Ean would probably laugh for hours and ask Kotori for pictures or stories, and he _knew_ Kotori would give them up without an issue. He'd have two terrors to deal with at once, and he knew he'd be quickly beaten.

Speaking of the redhead, Shido was worried. Their little scism was something he'd hoped to be temporary, but they hadn't talked in almost a week. The foreigner didn't seem to have a problem being in the same room as Shido, but he'd recently been out almost the entirety of three days, never even sparing a goodbye before he vanished. Shido couldn't even tail him with Kotori breathing down his neck to get him to finish his training.

The kicker? He'd asked Kotori about the redhead, and her response was… well, worrying.

" _Him? Ean will be fine. Worry more about yourself for once._ "

Last time he'd worried about himself, he left the redhead alone in a corridor on the Fraxinus and tried to ignore the pain in his voice.

What was wrong with him? Shido couldn't claim to be sensitive to the suffering of others if he started pulling crap like that…

He just needed to swallow his pride and apologize. God, he hoped he'd be forgiven.

"Earth to Shido? Have your last two brain cells finally committed seppuku?"

Kotori animatedly rapped her knuckles against his head, earning a bit of his ire.

"By brain cells don't need to regain their honor through suicide, sis. I was just thinking," he stated, waving her forwards to get whatever she needed over with quickly. He'd almost finished his training.

"Did thinking hurt?"

He gave her a playful glare and rolled his eyes, shoving his hand into his pockets as Kotori giggled. She opened the metal door they'd been walking to, letting him enter a _very_ large room. The stiff floor was padded a deep blue, and he noticed the walls were as well, only gray. He'd been ejected directly into a small, separated room with a large glass window. A viewing room, he'd realized.

He'd never seen this area when Kotori was forcing Kawagoe to give him a tour through the Fraxinus to familiarize himself with the ship. The black haired, off-centered white line of hair, and fat lipped man probably deemed it unimportant as he mumbled to himself how he needed a promotion.

What Shido saw on the other side of the window, near the long strip of clear area, made Shido's jaw drop to his knees, and all thoughts of the man were pushed away.

It was Ean, standing in equipment that he'd seen on the AST. The Wiring Suit was a sleek white with yellow undertones, matching the CR-Unit attached to him. He was talking to Kannazuki, out of Shido's earshot. The Fraxinus crew was all standing by the window beside Shido and Kotori, clipboards in hand as they intently watched.

Ean nodded to Minowa, although his eyes connected with Shido. The foreigner gave a cheeky grin and glanced back to Minowa, who had a smile on her face.

"Ean McBride, Wizardry test fifteen. Begin."

The redhead nodded in response. Shido could've shouted with glee when the foreigner took to the air, his flight shaky but manageable. At first, he took a lazy hover, lapping the room, and began to pick up speed. The grin that broke his face lifted Shido's grogginess with ease. The boy had been miserable for days - Shido honestly couldn't blame him. It was the bluenette's fault that had happened.

Ean's face fell very slightly as he began to move at a speed he could match by sprinting, but kept his cool as he moved past Kannazuki.

Shido didn't miss the smirk on the blond's face when he pulled out a small device from his pocket, somewhat similar to a controller, and squeezed it. Ean became a shade of sickly pale faster than he began moving, barely veering away from an oncoming wall, much to Shido's relief.

Then he went _faster._

"HOW THE FUCK DO I CONTROL THIS THING?!"

Shido watched in horror as Ean collided with several different walls like a demented pinball, aware of the raucous laughter coming from the Fraxinus members. The screaming was horrible, and Kannazuki attempted to 'help.' Even that was a stretch, as he himself was chuckling and giving a halfhearted attempt to help Ean control the Realizer.

"It's an extension of yourself! Like me and the Commander!"

"You're a fucking nuUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAA!"

The screaming hit several octaves that Ean shouldn't have been capable of hitting, sounding just like Kotori anytime she watched a scary movie.

"TURN IT OFF ALREADY!"

Kannazuki nodded and pushed something on the controller. The engine cut with Ean in _midair_.

The redhead hit the ground faster than Shido's morning turned sideways. Reine sighed beside the bluenette and stepped from the group to do her job, popping sleeping pills as she went. Shido watched as the woman pulled the heap of teen up into a sitting position with an uninterested look, then jabbed four fingers in front of his face.

"Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Nine."

"Close enough," she sighed, removing her hold on the boy and letting him flop right back onto the ground. He retorted with a groan and peeled himself from the ground miserably. Shido couldn't watch anymore and rushed up to help, figuring out how to disconnect the machine from his back so Ean wouldn't be burdened, then helping the boy up.

The bluenette supported his fellow teen to the viewing area, where Kotori was heading towards them. The trio met in the middle, where the younger teen gave a reassuring pat to Ean's arm. He grumbled in response.

Kotori turned to the Vice Commander, who was reigning his laughter in, and looked distastefully at him. It looked to Shido like a lightbulb had gone off in her head, because the malicious grin that adorned her face was nothing good.

"We all know that you were controlling it, Kyouhei," Kotori declared blatantly loud enough so everyone could hear it. The way Ean suddenly shot up in Shido's arms told the bluenette enough, so he let go and stumbled back before he was caught in the crossfire.

Ean's eyes shot to the blond man, flashing from brown to scarlet red. Shido jumped a bit when he saw it - the pure, unadulterated killing intent that began to float off of his body in droves. He stomped to the man, an ironically cheery smile on his face.

"Kannazuki. You're alive to me."

The man's eyebrow quirked up, and the redhead's metal boot crashed into his stomach a second later. He hit the ground, and Ean put a single foot onto the man's torso to keep him from squirming, deadly serious.

"Now you're dead to me. Shido, bring me that hammer."

His gloved hand pointed to a rack of weaponry that Shido had failed to notice earlier, tucked into a corner of the room.

The walk there and back was agonizing. Upon grabbing it and feeling how heavy it was, Shido prayed for Ean not to maim the man _too_ badly. The man was too attached to Kotori, but no one deserved what Ean might do. Kannazuki's pleading only made him even more worried.

Shido handed it to the foreigner, who gave a thankful nod as he took the weapon. It seemed to pass his inspection, because he began to swing it like a golf club right near Kannazuki's head. The blond screamed out in terror when the mallet came closer and closer with each swing.

Shido returned to stand next to Kotori, who had yet to move, yet had an evil grin on her face and her phone out to record the chaos. Kannazuki's quiet begging began to morph and crack into octaves that no middle-aged man should ever manage.

"W-what are you doing?! Stop! OH GOD NO! PLEASE! _I'M SORRY! COMMANDER, COMMANDER PLEASE SAVE ME!_ "

Kotori turned away and pretended not to hear the man's agonized screaming. The sickening cracks of hammer against groin filled the room, and every guy watching reflexively flinched. Shido could hear Ean's laughing over the sound of Kannazuki's coconuts becoming shavings, and pledged to never cause himself such pain.

After obliterating Kannazuki's nads about thirty times, Ean finally stepped away, sweating and chuckling to himself. He snagged the controller from Kannazuki's limp hand and looked at it with acute interest.

"Why the hell did no one give me this the day I started?"

Shido noticed Kotori whirl around to the crew of the Fraxinus, who suddenly became very occupied with their clipboards. The thirteen year old groaned in agony and annoyance at the silence.

"Yeah, _I know._ "

Shido, having been preoccupied with watching Shiizaki attempt to stealthily pick her nose and wipe it off on Nakatsugawa's coat, barely caught the quiet dismissal. Kotori had just spoken to nobody - or so he believed. Maybe an imaginar- no, that was stupid.

"Kotori?"

Her red eyes popped up to meet Shido's, surprise written all over her face. She gasped like a fish momentarily until storming away before Shido could get a question out, but snagged Reine by the wrist and bodily dragged the analyst from the training area. Shido noticed that she looked… distressed.

"Might not want to touch this," Ean mumbled beside him, appearing at Shido's right with an extremely bloodied hammer in his grasp. He looked the head of the weapon up and down, cringing at the blood, but more so at the… _unmentionables_. "There's perverted lolicon asshat on it."

Shido pushed Kotori from his mind and stumbled away from the weapon when Ean tossed it to the ground. Both boys just looked at it silently, apathy and mortification respective on either of their faces.

"You're coming with me?" Shido's question was one to break the silence that had set in between them, nothing more and nothing less.

"Yeah. I'm essentially your bodyguard for when you meet up with Princess again."

Ean 'Noodle Arms' McBride was his bodyguard?

Shido didn't get the time to mull over that any more, mainly because Ean's eyes had flickered to the bluenette, and a finger had prodded into the teen's chest.

"We're doing this smart. If I see you make a complete ass of yourself and fail miserably, which I think might happen, I'm gonna be the one to bail you out before you get beheaded."

The 'aww' that came from the crew when Ean spoke died when his eyes snapped over to them. Shido himself began to reach for the bloodied hammer with a red glint in his own eye.

The room cleared out faster than they could blink, with Nakatsugawa stumbling as he sprinted out the door. The two teens were left alone, but laughed happily with the response they'd garnered.

"How's your training been going?"

The smile on Ean's face died.

"Despite getting my ass kicked every open minute and the aching of phantom pains because blunt force trauma was a thing in my life? Terribly."

 _No thanks to you_ , the boy's expression seemed to say. Shido decided to atone for his mistakes and descended to his knees. He pressed his forehead to the floor, not daring to look at the person he'd dragged into his problems.

"I am, from the bottom of my heart, terribly sorry. It was my job to watch out for you, and I failed to even do that. You shouldn't have been forced into a situation like that by me."

"You think an apology is enough to take care of all of the stress you decided to dump me with?"

The clipped tone smashed down on him as if someone had intensified the room's gravity, the pure _vehemence_ in it tearing chills down the bluenette's spine.

"We're introduced to a world where practically anything can brutally murder us, and you want to _stay_ because of a crush. When I present you with logic, facts, and common sense, your choice is to forget my PTSD'd ass like a ball of trash and rush after an alien."

Princess wasn't-!

No. He was right. Shido had chosen a complete stranger over the boy who'd decided to uproot his whole life and do his best to conjoin with his own.

"You tell me to run home like a bitch, disregard every time a spacequake hits like there aren't robot girls chasing after you and a freak of nature, or throw myself bodily into the chaos. Did you not see me having a mental breakdown for about… I dunno, seventy-two hours, worried sick about the people who took me in without a problem for my stay?"

Shido bit on his tongue to keep from dissolving into apologies. He'd failed not only as a friend, but as a host as well. He'd willingly forced Ean into something that shouldn't have been comfortable for anyone. How had he not recognized that sooner?

Why was he asking the question? Shido knew exactly why the redhead hadn't been on his radar; he was focused on his training.

"I… was busy…" Shido stated, knowing before the words even left his lips how bad it sounded.

"And _I_ was busy getting yelled at by our classmate," Ean spat right back.

"Get up," he said, like the act of Shido apologizing was a nuisance. The bluenette rose from his knees, yet kept his head bowed. He would accept any punishment his friend deemed fit.

A sigh rattled out from the redhead, and Shido flinched when he watched the boy's boots step forward. Something metal lightly tapped the head of the Asian, nowhere near what Shido expected.

The redhead had rapped his knuckles on the boy's forehead, grinning as the cold metal on his hand rested on Shido's face, resulting in the weakest punch the bluenette suspected the redhead could feasibly manage.

"A friend told me that if I can't change someone's mind over something, I should do everything I can to protect them in exchange." He readopted the sheepish expression, glancing away from the bluenette. "Sorry for blowing up on you on the Fraxinus."

" _You shouldn't be apologizing,_ " Shido thought sadly. He pushed away that thought. Ean wanted to bury the hatchet - Shido should do the same.

"It's fine. I guess that you were right when you said that it was stupid to follow a gut feeling."

Ean didn't respond verbally to that, just giving a terse nod. Shido bit down on his lip and cursed everything that happened the past six days.

"At least I gained a newfound hate for Kannazuki," Ean stated after a moment's silence, doing his best to keep away the awkwardness. He chuckled, but Shido noticed his left eyes twitching with pure anger, something the bluenette could likely replicate having to deal with Kannazuki too long. "He chased me around with a lightsaber until I was capable of not screaming in terror when a weapon was pointed at me. If he's correct, I have about one percent of Wizard training complete."

Shido grinned. It seemed like the hate for the blond man had spread to everyone in the Itsuka household.

"What's using a CR-Unit like," Shido asked, genuinely curious about how it felt to start flying like that, with such control and speed.

He then remembered that Ean could barely pilot his own CR-Unit when a self-deprecating smile blossomed on the redhead's face and his eyes glassed over.

"Ask me when I can figure out how to use Territory for more than three seconds. The shit's hard, dude."

A reassuring pat on the back was all that Shido could bring himself to do, making an already awkward situation even worse. They moved to the doorway together, intent on leaving the room. Shido did, but Ean stopped right before the exit.

"Shido?"

The bluenette looked to his fellow teen, whose eyes had once again become red.

"I'll have you know that I was _very_ close to knocking your fucking lights out."

Shido reeled back. Ean's smile became cold.

"Don't do shit like that again. I'd like to live past sixteen, you know."

* * *

" **This is seriously your training? I was expecting something a little more… intelligent.** "

Shido was just thinking the same thing, considering he'd just declared his undying love for a teacher twice his age and she'd said _yes._ The laughter in his ear from both Kotori _and_ Ean told a tale of teasing longer than old legends.

But to run straight into Tobiichi was something only he'd be able to manage, isn't it? The only upside to having knocked her straight onto the floor was catching a view of white lace and still being alive. She sat up as good as new, as if she didn't even mind having given the boy an eyeful of… as Ean aptly put it, ' _cooter._ '

" **See what you can ask of her, Bro.** **She's part of the AST, so it'll be good to make sure someone recognizes you before they attempt to take your head off again.** "

" **You've gotta specify which head, Kotes. One has** _ **significantly**_ **more blood in it than the other.** "

Shido groaned to himself, then remembered that he had someone to try to court as per his training. His _stalker_.

"Uh, h-hey… Tobiichi?"

The white haired girl continued to look impassively at him. Shido did what he thought best, took it as a response, and tried again.

"I… really like your clothes."

Origami blinked.

" **Kotori, record this. I'm playing it at his wedding.** "

Origami looked at herself.

"It's a uniform."

"I… _yeah…_ "

Shido was suddenly aware of the laughing coming from his earpiece and Ean's desperate attempts to get Kotori to quiet down.

" **Ean thinks she's down a couple of brain cells.** "

" **Do** _ **not**_ **say that to her! She'll hunt me down and use my skin to get close to you! If I start acting like her, run for the hills!** "

Shido was already going to do that if things got any worse right now...

" **Shin, repeat after me.** "

The voice of Reine came through his earpiece, and Shido jumped, having completely forgotten that she was there. His guardian angel waited a moment for Shido to collect his thoughts - likely using the time to shut the two devilish redheads up before they caused more damage to Shido's self worth - and spoke. Shido followed obediently.

"Tobiichi, I've actually known about you for a long time."

"Same here."

"...and I can't take my eyes off you."

"Same here."

"And that's not all! I… also sniff your gym uniform after school."

"Same here."

" **WHAT THE FUCK?!** "

"You do? What a coincidence. Then _holy crap I'm actually saying this after that_ would you like to go out with me?"

The silence hit a crescendo, and Shido waited tensely for what felt like forever in two seconds, waiting for the explosion to hit.

"I wouldn't mind going out with you."

The screaming in his ears was something that he couldn't differentiate: was it Ean's, his own, or a combination of both?

"Here."

She shoved something into his hand, a small slip of paper. The bluenette's inspection on the object told him that Origami wasn't just a stalker - she was a full blown _nutjob._

"Because you liked my clothes."

" **Why was she carrying that around with her?** "

Shido didn't know. Origami seemingly had pictures of herself on hand, and they looked like they were taken by a professional photographer, too. And she _signed_ them with her name and a big pink heart.

Oh, he did _not_ like the silence coming from his earpiece. It left him feeling alone and insecure and _Ean literally just insult him, please, oh gods he's going to lose it._

" **Tell her that you want to do anal,** " Ean's voice demanded over the earpiece.

"WHAT?! HELL NO! I CAN'T TELL HER THAT!"

Shido slapped a hand over his mouth once he realized that he'd said that aloud. The bluenette wondered just how much Origami had heard and discerned, because _that_ was the rate to how hard she was going to kick his ass.

No! Don't think of ass and Origami in the same sentence! Bad!

" **Actually… that might be a good idea. See how far Origami would go for you, bro.** "

' _Oh god Kotori not you too_ ,' was what he wanted to scream out loud. But he didn't, merely preparing himself for death to take him away once he finished his next sentence.

"So… T-Tobiichi… do… you wanna… try… a… an… ana-"

The spacequake alarm kicked in. Shido fell to his knees, screaming and thanking God and promising to never sin again.

"DEUS EX MACHINA THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

Origami's statement that she had to leave fell on deaf ears.

He would _hopefully_ live another day.

* * *

"Shouldn't you be in your Wiring Suit and CR-Unit?"

Ean shot a glare at the bluenette, the both of them standing outside the destroyed school they were in not fifteen minutes ago. Raizen looked worse for wear, especially with a giant hole through one of the buildings.

"Oh yeah, because wearing the same thing as the AST that have been hunting her nonstop will certainly be perfectly safe. Not like she can obliterate every atom in my body with a swing of her blade."

Maybe Shido really _did_ need common sense...

Whatever, he was too pumped with adrenaline to care currently. He was busy mentally preparing himself to see Princess again, and had decided it to be best to go in wearing his uniform. He didn't want to piss her off and end up on the chopping block for her Angel.

"We're going in," Shido stated, looking dramatically at the building that housed his crush. Ean turned to the boy and grinned.

"Oh, you've wanted to say that since all of this started, didn't you?" Shido blushed a bit at Ean's observation, listening as the redhead playfully muttered, "Nerd."

" **Hey, are you morons gonna go in or what?! We've only got a limited amount of time before the AST grow some balls!** "

Both boys winced at Kotori's agitated shout. She wasn't wrong, per say, but Ean began to seriously wonder if she had a stick shoved up her ass half the time.

He followed behind the bluenette, keeping a close eye on the sky and their surroundings. He half expected Origami to come tearing out of the clouds and tear him in half for keeping Shido safe when both he and she knew that the white haired girl could do much better.

Essentially, he was moral support. Didn't mean he had to be mad about it.

"Now Shido-"

"I know. I'll keep my head straight this time. I promise."

The bluenette grinned over his shoulder, pulling a Joseph Joestar and predicting what Ean was going to say before he said it. If he was that smooth with Princess, this would go without a hitch.

They stopped before their destroyed classroom, and once they had confirmation, they stepped in.

Standing at the destroyed far wall, looking at the two boys with widening eyes, was Princess, a carbon image of how she looked a week prior. A smile broke her melancholy expression as she turned to face them directly.

"I knew it," she said in a breathy voice, practically quivering with emotion. "You came."

Shido smiled very slightly, and Ean just looked at him, disappointed. So much for ' _Keep my head straight._ ' He was deep into la-la land by now.

"And you… you're not dead?"

Ean grinned sheepishly, rubbing his hair and giving a small chuckle when he remembered that Kannazuki had lorded over the fact that he'd been delegated to a sack of meat the last time they'd met Princess. He gave a weak thumbs up to placate the Spirit, who had begun to move to them happily.

"What're your names?"

Shido began to answer, but the ping of their earpieces activating stopped him.

" **Shido, repeat after me.** "

The very second he heard Kotori's voice through his earpiece, Ean's harem bullshit radar kicked in. It was as if a message from the Gods came to him: " _Stop him before this becomes some type of anime scene like what happened to you and Stephanie._ "

"When asking someone's na-MMPFH!"

"I'm Ean McBride, a foreigner from America. The idiot here is Shido Itsuka."

Princess blinked at the fact that Ean's hand had slapped onto Shido's face so had that the bluenette buckled and hit the floor.

"That… was not meant to happen."

Shido peeled himself from the floor, slapped Ean across the face, and the redhead let himself buckle to the ground to make things even.

"You should both leave. It's dangerous here."

They heard Princess' words. Ean was inclined to agree, but he let Shido do what he needed to do. With a reassuring nod to the bluenette when he glanced back, uncertain, Ean rose and gave him a light shove. Shido took it in stride, taking the momentum to walk forwards confidently.

"I came because I wanted to see you."

Princess back up, the look on her face one that made her seem like a meek little girl.

"Me? Why would you want to see me?"

"Why did you make such a lonely face?"

Ean's brow furrowed. He'd briefly noticed the same thing.

Despite his fear, Ean felt a small part of him want to stay and find out.

"I-I don't…"

"Tell me! You can trust me! I promise that I will never let you down!"

Princess stopped, so Shido stopped as well. Ean quietly walked up, silent and full of anticipation.

"Are you sure?"

The anticipation died when Princess looked away with a childish blush on her cheeks.

"Positive."

"One hundred percent?"

"One thousand percent."

Ean watched the exchange like the awkward third wheel on a date, a tired and deadpan expression on his face as he imitated gagging on his fingers and finally broke the illusion of seclusion the two had pulled up.

"That was some of the cheesiest crap I've ever seen in my life."

"Shut up," both Shido and Princess responded. Ean just rolled his eyes and grinned in response.

Then the Spirit in the room remembered his existence, her head of plum hair whipping around, whipping Shido in the process, and let her see the redhead who'd plopped himself down on a desk. He'd leaned away when Princess' ponytail came at him, watching it fly past his face and crash into Shido.

"And you? Why are you here?"

Ean jabbed a finger into his fellow male's neck, uncaring of the indignant shout he let out.

"To make sure this idiot doesn't get himself killed."

Tohka bit her lip and half-heartedly nodded in response.

"If you're both sure… I don't know a lot about this world. Thank you."

Ean smiled back slightly, but noticed that Shido seemed to have a full-on heart squeeze moment. The redhead rolled his eyes when Shido seemed to remember a glaring problem in the room.

"You never gave us your name. We can't just refer to you as Princess while everything is going on."

She seemed to realize this as well, because her frown returned and it looked like Shido had been punched in the face.

"I don't have a name… I know! Give me a name. Please."

What.

Ean blinked, as if he was seeing a mirage. A girl that seemed to be physically his age just asked for he and Shido to _name_ her. What were they, her parents?

Did Spirits have parents?

The redhead turned to Shido, who looked just as dumbfounded as he about the naming debacle. Thankfully, the Fraxinus had their backs, and got a bunch of names from their dating simulator troops and _you know, he's just gonna stop thinking now._

" **Try Tome.** "

Ean watched silently as Shido tried to name Princess 'Tome.'

He then laughed aloud as Princess waved her arm like a blade and tore a giant gash into the wall Shido pressed himself into, whimpering. Ean giggled at Shido's on and off sense of stupidity until Princess' eyes shot to him, annoyed and a bit angry.

Ean was on his hands and knees before he could blink, his forehead having slammed so hard into the ground that he saw spots.

"His actions don't reflect on me. Please don't wipe me from the face of the earth."

' _Take pity on meeee,_ ' Ean hissed in his brain. Thankfully, Tohka did just that, her heels clicking away from the foreigner and likely over to Shido, and specifically judging by his panicked mumbling, she was glaring at him.

"How about… Tohka? Would that work?"

It was the only comprehensible part of Shido's verbal barfing, but also the part that pulled Ean back to his legs to witness the outcome.

Oh, what an outcome it will be-

"Tohka… I think I like it! Thank you!"

Shido introduced her to the blackboard, showing her how to write her own name as Ean's brain underwent a hard reset.

The bluenette nodded once Tohka had learned to write her name, and as she marveled at it, Ean hauled Shido to the side, his exasperation almost tangible enough to bean him upside the head.

"Tohka?! _Tenth?!_ "

"It was the first thing that came to mind!"

"You named her after the day we met her! What, did you name your cat Mr. Kitty too?!"

"I didn't have a cat!"

"You know what I mean!"

Their argumentative reverie was killed mercilessly when the sound of gunfire filled the room. It was so loud that Ean could barely hear himself sc-

He didn't scream. Lies. Slander. It wasn't like a cartoon where Ean _definitely_ didn't jump into Shido's arms because he was terrified.

Tohka turned to them, the serious mask she wore whenever something bad happened returning with a vengeance.

"You should go. I don't want either of you getting hurt for me."

Ean's furious pantomiming that 'yes, they should leave' was ignored by the bluenette.

"You wanna know more about Earth, right? You can't learn if we leave."

Shido threw himself down to the floor, and Ean knew they weren't leaving anytime soon, so he sat down as well. Tohka joined them after a moment, the three of them sitting together.

The three of them talked. Tohka asked questions, and they answered to the best of their abilities. Ean's favorite highlights were, as follows: "Why do some humans choose to be shorter than other humans," "What's a… tam… pun," and finally, "Where do babies come from?"

He let Shido answer those. Listening to the boy explain to Tohka was a tampon was - it was euphoric.

Then the bluenette dropped a bomb, aided by the cheering of the Fraxinus crew and Kotori's threat to reveal something to Ean about Shido's apparent chuunibyou days, and Ean's sanity took a nosedive.

"Tohka, would you like to go out with me?"

Ean choked on his spit. His coughing was drowned out by the sound of another volley of bullets, stopped by Tohka's energy shield, but it didn't keep the attention of Tohka off of him.

Okay, she needed to stop using puppy-dog eyes. She could blow as a skyscraper with her Angel. She wasn't _allowed_ to make him feel bad.

Ean looked to Shido, who shrugged. The redhead cleared his throat and turned back to Tohka, hoping that she wouldn't believe that it was completely normal to have long pauses between sentences, or she was going to be laughed at.

"Hey, Tohka? How come you seem to trust us so much? If you're being hunted, then wouldn't it be smarter to have run the second you appeared?"

Tohka blinked in response, but Ean noticed how she blushed so very slightly as her eyes flickered to Shido, who was watching just as intently.

Gross.

"I… feel like I've experienced something like this before. I don't know where… but seeing you two puts me at ease."

Okay, forget flickered, her eyes hit Shido and were glued down on his figure. Was Ean even there? Did he exist? Even _he_ didn't know anymore.

"You were the first human to try to protect me. The first human that didn't try and attack when I awoke."

"Tohka…"

They went back to gazing at one another. Ean damned himself for forgetting his phone, because then he'd have something to do.

"Don't mind me, I'm just chopped liver…"

Neither seemed to hear him, still _lost in each other's eyes_ and all of that mushy stuff. He looked outside, the orange sunset glowing in the distance. It was much more beautiful than the gag-fest that was happening in the room.

He swore to God that if they started making out, he was going to knock the bluenette out and bid Tohka a kind farewell. Thankfully, he didn't hear any slobbering, which left him to happily look out and enjoy the sunset.

He could hear the buzzing of the AST outside, still trying to flush Tohka out. He doubted that the two even remembered that the AST were around. At least the shooting had stopped.

Wait, was that getting louder-

The ceiling practically exploded, letting a huge cloud of rubble and smoke to envelop the room. The sound of a No Pain engaging - an AST energy blade - made Ean move, his CR-Unit appearing in a flash of light on his back. His own blade tore out as the smoke began to clear.

Tohka had protected Shido from the blast thankfully, their lovey-dovey time over now that the AST had made its move. Ean made sure they were far away when he swung his blade, feeling it collide with something strangely non-physical. He knew in an instant that he'd hit energy. It was hard to mask the sound of the blades colliding when Kannazuki chased him around with one every free hour he'd had.

Origami emerged from the smoke, blade locked against Ean's own. Her face was an uncharacteristic visage of rage as Ean watched her quickly analyze the situation: Tohka protecting Shido, and Ean's blade against her own.

"What're you doing?! You said-"

"What I said doesn't matter right now!" He retorted, cutting her off and throwing her back. The redhead grit his teeth and readied himself for Origami to run him through with ease despite the courage he was faking. "I'm atoning for the mistake of telling you what Shido was up to."

He heard Shido sputter slightly, confused by what that meant. Ean doubted his actions even truly mattered - the AST and Origami were synonymous. She'd have tried to attack Tohka whether he was here or not.

"Then I take care of you too."

He let out a squeak. She and Tohka had been able to duel one-on-one, swinging that weapon around so fast that it made the characters in JoJo look like idiots.

Now he was supposed to _fight_ one of them?! He didn't sign up for-

Oh shit, this was _exactly_ what he signed up for.

Tohka's barrier cut them away from the girl, Ean stepping back quickly as Origami slammed into the metaphysical wall. Tohka's purple eyes shot back to Shido and Ean, a worried undertone in them mostly covered by the hardness that took the place of her previous innocence.

"Both of you, go. I don't want you getting hurt for my sake."

Ean agreed, grabbing Shido by the collar and haunting him out of the room. The sound of a heel clicking, followed by Tohka shouting "Sandalphon," and every window on the floor shattering at once told him that he'd made the right choice.

Then Shido managed to regain his footing, looking back to where they'd left Tohka sadly. His wide eyes roved over to Ean, who grit his teeth and prepared to leave.

Shido didn't move. Ean pulled harder.

Shido was seemingly made entirely of iron, because Ean's noodle arms wouldn't work well enough. The foreigner had a choice to make: be an ass and leave, or be less of an ass and get into a fight.

Damn him. Damn Shido, and _damn_ Ean's sense of right and wrong.

"I've got her. Leave before I get the Kannazuki Cracker and introduce it to your groin."

Shido failed to move.

"I'm not doing this shit, Shido! Kotori, beam him up."

The bluenette's face paled, but Ean was having absolutely none of it. He would've better spent the entire counter tearing through the chapter of physics they'd been assigned, but was delegated to a third wheel instead.

So he knocked one of the other wheels off.

"Ea-!"

The boy vanished in a flash of light, and it was as if a weight had been lifted from the foreigner's shoulders. He stomped back into the room, bearing witness to Origami getting booted out the giant hole in the wall with the blade he'd seen a week ago. He walked right up to stand beside Tohka, his No Pain tight in his hand. Tohka shot him a little glare, but the redhead stood tall.

"You too."

Ean fixed her with his own glare.

"Yeah, no. You apparently saved me, so I should return the favor. Think of it as making things equal."

Tohka smiled, and it looked like the sun hadn't only parted the clouds, but _mutilated_ them. She took off in all of her mystical glory, that giant blade - Sandalphon - behind her. Ean himself followed, his CR-Unit pulling him from the safety of mostly-solid floor and into the sky. His mantra played over and over again in his brain, giving him confidence that he could do something to help.

" _Don't die don't die don't die don't die."_

He could do this. Kannazuki was the one piloting his CR-Unit, and this was his _job._ He had full faith in the man who continuously tortured him and treated him like a punching bag and never shut up about Kotori's body. Everything would be fine.

He barely made it a meter from the school when a laser beam tore past his face, drawing blood.

"I'm gonna fucking murder you when this is finished, Kannazuki."

* * *

Shido waited in tense silence, hoping - _praying_ \- for Tohka and Ean to be okay. He was pissed and annoyed that Ean had pushed him away like that, but understood why he'd done what he did. Shido wouldn't be any good in battle, no matter how much he would've tried.

But that begged the question: was Ean okay to fight? The bluenette knew for a fact that Tohka would be fine: he'd seen her fight. Ean's predicament was more worrying, with his limited training and being practically incapable of flying his CR-Unit in a situation like that.

Would Tohka be able to deal with both the AST _and_ Ean in that situation?

The door slammed open, and Shido threw his attention to the direction, face brightening when he saw the head of copper hair. The relief instantly fell to the side when he saw blood smeared across the boy's face. Ean had a hand to his side, where blood was pooled against his wiring suit. He barely managed three steps into the room before he collapsed to his knees, spitting out blood.

"Help."

Shido took to his side, hauling him back up and pulling him to the couch. The bluenette forced his friend to lie down and tore out of the room, returning quickly with antiseptics and bandages, and a belt for him to bite down on. The boy knew the reason, biting down hard on the leather as Shido pulled away the fabric of the foreigner's Wiring Suit to see the injury.

Shido identified it as a bullet wound. Wasn't hard not to, really - it was small, circular, and bleeding like hell.

"What happened," Shido finally asked, having been busy cleaning off as much blood as he could. He could hear Ean bite down harder on the belt, but murmured through his teeth "M-my Territory malfunctioned. Tohka had my back."

That seemed worrying, but at least Shido knew that Tohka cared about Ean's well-being. The haunted look on the boy's face seemed to say that she might've cared _too_ much. Enough to kill.

Ean's shaking didn't seem to be focused as much around pain as Shido expected.

"Didn't the Fraxinus try to teleport you?"

"I lost my earpiece in the scuffle, and the transmitter on my CR-Unit got busted."

Shido bit his lip as he carefully coated the wound in antiseptic, cringing at the amount of blood that kept pooling in the injury. He seriously doubted that he could get the bullet from the redhead's side. He glanced to Ean, whose brown eyes seemed to scream that he understood and hated that fact.

"I didn't really expect to come out unscathed. I've been training for three days compared to however long the AST has been recruiting. All I could really do was keep some of the Wizards off Tohka so she could become lost."

Shido nodded, bandaging the hole in his friend's side as best as he could with his limited knowledge of first aid. When he finished, Ean stopped punching holes in the leather belt with his teeth, letting out a sigh of exhaustion and agony.

Ean groaned loudly as he pulled himself up from the depths of the couch, hand light on his side to keep the wound from opening. He gave a smile too weak for his face to Shido, and the bluenette breathed a sigh of relief. Ean sat normally on the couch, eyeing his bloodied Wiring Suit with a distasteful eye.

"I think I hate Origami."

Origami? Did she…?

"Did she shoot you?"

The foreigner shook his head, and Shido felt a bit relieved. Ever since he'd heard Origami claim that she'd take care of Ean, he'd been worried for the boy. Ean wouldn't be able to survive.

"I sort of wish. I'd have chances to wring her neck then."

Shido cracked a smile and helped the boy from his seat, hobbling out of the room to his own abode.

* * *

Kotori's brain ached.

The voice wouldn't stop. It hurt so much that she half wanted someone to blow her head off to have some damn peace and quiet.

 **Things won't be safe, Itsuka**. It said it over and over again.

She hated it. **She hates them.**

Her own home didn't feel safe. Her brother would be terrified if he heard about her having voices in her head. **Ean would kill her.**

She wanted her to stop. It felt like the pills Reine had given her would be her last hope.

 **Thank** _ **god**_ **for her, right?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Raizen High had better days. The spacequake that had hit the day prior was nothing compared to how it looked now. Honestly, it was surprising that it still somehow resembled a school. Rubble was scattered everywhere, and the school's clock had broken off the building and crashed to the ground.

Professionals claimed that all of the damages had been caused by the spacequake. Once, Ean might have believed the same. That was before he'd been shot helping out Tohka.

"Why the hell are we here? School sent out an email saying it was essentially vacation time."

The redhead hadn't wanted to wake up when school was currently on holiday, early or no, not after the battle the day prior. Hell, he might not have woken up even for a spacequake. Shido apparently hadn't thought the same, pulling the wounded boy from their shared home and pulling him the distance to the broken concrete that had once been his school.

When Ean asked his friend "Why are we here _after_ hell broke loose?" Shido's response was short and distracted, and likely a little maddened.

"I'm looking for something."

"Can you tell me what this 'something' is?"

"The blackboard from our classroom," was his final statement as he scavenged through the rubble, looking for something that was likely completely shattered. Ean would've helped, but didn't for two reasons.

One, he was still wounded. Extensive physical labor, as Reine had made sure to tell him as Shido pulled him to school via his replaced earpiece, could open his wound again, and would likely end with him covered in blood once more. Ean had agreed wholeheartedly, having many experiences in the past where the scars on his chest would pop open if he even twitched, and had no desire to emulate such a situation.

Two, because the first slab of concrete he'd laid his eyes on was stained with what was likely his own blood, which somehow made him not want to touch it even more.

"It wasn't a dream. Tohka was actually here."

Ean glanced to the bluenette awkwardly, wondering just what the hell he was mumbling about. Of course Tohka was there - he'd gotten _shot_ for her.

"Did you seriously think that me with a spray of bullets in my side was a dream?"

Shido didn't seem to hear him, running his hands over the pile of rubble with a careful eye. When he found what he was looking for, he retrieved it and held it up for the foreigner to see.

"She was here," he said, a chunk of broken blackboard that Tohka had written on sandwiched between his fingers.

Ean just rolled his eyes exasperatedly, scanning over the rest of the rubble as Shido remained attentive to the scrap of blackboard. His eyes fell on the dress-clad figure tearing at him through the air like a cannonball. Tohka slammed into him at the speed of a car on a highway, happily shouting "You're not dead!"

To say he crashed into the ground was an understatement - it was more of a sensation where he want from 'upright' to 'uuuuuhhhhhhgggggg.'

"I'm so glad you're alright! When I saw you get hurt, I didn't know what to do! Are humans really so durable that you're capable of battle already?"

Ean resisted the urge to cough his guts out or scream because of the ache in the bullet wound he'd gotten, only looking to Tohka with a meek grin.

"I… don't really know about battle," he grumbled, remembering the shitshow that was his attempt at helping Tohka the day prior and his complete inability to knock even _one_ Wizard out of the battle, "but I don't feel like someone's putting a burning piece of metal into my side right now, so technically, I _am_ better."

Tohka nodded happily and pulled him from the ground with her inhuman strength, failing to notice his pained wince as she turned to the bluenette, the makings of a blush on her face.

"Shido! Hey, Shido!"

Shido didn't hear her - no matter how the redhead tried to spin it, that just didn't make sense - so Ean tried snapping in front of the boy's face. He jumped and glared at the redhead, who jabbed his finger at Tohka, who was smiling happily at the teen.

"You're alive too!"

She lunged like a lion after its prey and began to suffocate him with all the strength of an anaconda. Shido turned about as blue as his hair until Tohka finally released him, the boy coughing up a storm. Ean snickered in return, immediately deciding to return to business.

"How'd you get back? The Spacequake alarm didn't go off."

"Shido promised me something called a date! Well I'm here, so let's go, _let's go, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!_ "

Tohka walked at Shido, prodding a finger into his chest as she did, and managed to leave Ean to see the implications of Spirits appearing willy-nilly whenever they were promised something. That seemed dangerous and hard to predict… hell, he could walk down the street and pass Spirits without even realizing it. He could stumble into a few weirdly dressed people and be confused whether to treat them as cosplayers, Spirits, or entu…

Enthusiasts…

" _Battles… victories… ties and losses…"_

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me," he mumbled under his breath, remembering the twins in the arcade almost two weeks ago. Somehow, it all seemed to make sense. He didn't even know about Spirits and he thought they were weird.

Was Shido going to have to date two sexual deviants to save the world from spacequakes?!

"Let's go, Shido!" Tohka's shout was enough to snap him from his stupor to see her practically carrying Shido away.

"W-wait, hold on! Can you change out of that," Shido requested, looking up and down Tohka's Astral Dress and no doubt associating it with cosplayers. Ean would've agreed, but he slightly snickered at Shido's obliviousness. Tohka seemed to notice it as well, because she looked at the blue haired boy awkwardly.

"You want me to strip down in broad daylight?"

"I'm not sure how you were taught, but you shouldn't be asking Tohka to go nude in front of us. That's more of a Tonomachi move."

Shido's blush ignited into a forest fire on his face at Ean's quickly thought out comment, but a huge problem popped into his head that needed to be asked.

"How are we going to explain that two boys are buying clothes for a girl together?"

The terrifying prospect of being mistakenly thought as a gay couple when they were essentially family was worrying to Ean. It would put images into his head that didn't need to exist and _Christ almighty don't you dare thinkAAAAAAAAAAAA-_

Don't think! Brain, off! Stop looking at Shido! Stop looking him up and down! Dude, you're not even-

"Hold up."

Ean snagged the paper from the boy's pocket, glaring at the image that greeted him in return. His bedraggled sigh rocked through his entire body as he looked disappointedly at the bluenette.

"Why the actual hell are you still carrying that around?"

He waved the picture of Origami at his fellow male for less than a second until Tohka snagged it herself and looked at it herself. The way her eyes narrowed was terrifying

"Do you wish for me to wear this? It's your preference," Tohka questioned, undeterred by Ean stifling a laugh and Shido desperately beating down his fellow male with his school blazer, angrily stating "Don't you _dare!_ "

Tohka sighed and tore the picture in half, and Ean saw the look on her face that made it seem like some small part of her taking enjoyment in hurting the white haired girl in any way. She rose a hand, and in a flash of purple light, was suddenly in a Raizen High uniform.

"Is this better," she asked, eyes strangely innocent for someone who casually maimed people attacking her. They agreed, and Tohka was just about ready to grab Shido once more and row him away. Ean snapped into action first, his brown eyes drilling holes into the bluenette.

"Dude. Don't do anything dumb today. Not because you'll kill yourself, but you'll kill me."

Shido's eyes flickered to where Ean's wound was. The redhead felt a bit bad about using guilt to manipulate the boy into staying safe, but it was much better than attempting to constantly be ready in case something happened on their date.

"Come on, Shido! We'll see you later, Ean!"

"Have a nice time, lovebirds!"

Tohka shouted back a couple of gratitudes and waved, all while dragging Shido like a letter in the wind. The sound of his earpiece activating caught his attention, and Kotori's voice came through the device, a bit of a shake to it that the foreigner couldn't quite find a reason for.

" **Think he'll be okay?** "

A knowing smile cracked across Ean's face as he continued to wave to the two.

"Oh, he is so fucked."

* * *

Kurumi watched Tohka dash off, Shido's arm in her relentless hold. She heard the familiarity of Ean's awkward laughing as he followed the bluenette's descent into a full harem with his eyes, where Kurumi let out a small grin. If only he knew, then he wouldn't be smiling. He'd be _running._

"Think they'll be okay?"

The Nightmare Spirit heard Sakura's words and instinctively gagged. Not even the Raisen school rooftop, no matter how obliterated it was, seemed to be safe from the girl and her awkward prying and babying. The heels of blonde Goddess clicked up to her from behind, and Kurumi whirled around with a distasteful look on her face, avoiding looking at those stupid pink eyes.

Ean had a dream about this ditz?

Kurumi didn't like her for a few reasons. She was a prissy, spoiled brat, unwilling to get her hands dirty with anything, and believed herself to be the best of their little group of time travelers, Goddesses, and Spirit. Her only focus alongside them was to watch over Ean and whoever he asked her to, then protect them if need be.

" _Which she failed miserably at_ ," Kurumi thought, remembering seeing those scars adorning his body in every life when she stopped in to check on the others. She was supposed to protect him, guardian deity her ass.

Although, it did make sense why Ean always pulled through in the other lives. He had his own Goddess watching over him and that brand on his body.

Images of the boy screaming out in pain, being maimed and attacked to keep his family safe, blinked into her head. He fought to save lives, even after the torture he'd endured. How he hadn't gone insane was still a mystery for Nightmare.

"Kurumi?"

The Spirit turned to Homura, who was looking uneasily at her. A quick rub of her face told Kurumi that she wasn't coated in blood again, and it gave her the time to think up a joke that the blonde bombshell of another time would _love._

"I dunno. Only time will tell."

Homura groaned at the joke, but Kurumi smiled. She couldn't _wait_ to introduce Homura to the girl that she respected in all but killing intent, even though her partner had that covered.

Alas, that'd have to wait. There were more important things to do than putting two people together and expecting some type of relationship to miraculously bloom. That only happened in Sakura's… _questionable_ taste in literature.

Fledgling Goddess of Light, meet smut.

"At least they have us looking out for them," Sakura stated, pink eyes still focused on the redhead below, who seemed to remember that he had a job to do and sprinted after the Spirit and Shido as quickly as his aching side would let him.

Homura and Sakura watched over them. Yu had his own agenda that he refused to disclose, and Kurumi _prepared._ Lived up to the mantle of Nightmare well enough to make people have actual nightmares.

"I wish we could've stopped the chaos before it even started. Darling shouldn't be suffering through this."

At the sound of Ean's faux nickname that he'd been unknowingly slapped with, Kurumi once again gagged - " _PURGE IT,"_ she screamed in her mind.

"Can't really call if suffering if all they're doing is saving Tohka."

"He took a bullet!"

"One that you pulled out his side while he slept," Homura countered, despite the morose look on her face. "You should've left the wound, Sakura."

Those words seemed to affect Sakura as if she'd been slapped. She whirled around, a look on her face that seemed to scream about how much she wanted to hit the redhead. Homura saw it too - her eyes widened and her face paled as Sakura stomped towards her.

"What?! He was in pain! You saw that, Homura," she shouted at the Flamebringer. Kurumi felt the trigger of her flintlock with a tight finger. It shouldn't be too hard to shoot up a Goddess.

How much time would a Goddess give her? She's been alive, what, since the dawn of time?

Furthermore, how did the dumbass not realize that he was bulletless?

Before Nightmare could formulate a specific reason as to how Ean forgot about the foreign object lodged in his side, a crack split open the air beside the trio of girls. It was inhuman and unholy, as was the boy that stepped through, something thrown over his shoulders. Kurumi saw it and grinned, licking her lips hungrily.

"My, my, looks like my kitty caught a bird."

Yu looked at her with those emotionless, dead fish eyes and dumped the unconscious Wizard onto the floor. Kurumi poked at the girl's face with her gun and cringed when the muzzle was caked with spray-on tan. She wiped it against Yu's leg and grinned as he shot her an agitated look.

"This is my only pair of clothes."

"So?"

"I hate you."

"My my, that's such an uncouth thing to say to a lady. You're not going to find your true love like that! Show some spine! Lie! Do something that doesn't make you seem as bland as a pamphlet you carry around because you forgot to toss it!"

Yu just stared. Kurumi poked him with her pistol.

"N-Narukami," Homura stuttered out, looking at the state that the Wizard was in with wide eyes. "What's going on?"

"Can't you tell, Homu?" Kurumi giggled as she turned to her Goddess friend, instantly realizing that her adorable little gender-confused runt hadn't realized what was happening. "It's an offering," she stated, digging the sole of her boot into the unconscious girl's spine, trying to find any part of her that looked tasty _without_ the fake tan. How was she supposed to get time from this? It was like some of that god awful food that Raizen's cafeteria served. Oh, how she could go for Shido's cooking right about now. It wouldn't give her time, but it damn sure felt like it did.

Yu's grey eyes watched her, she could tell even as she played with her food.

"I'll do my part in keeping Shido and Ean alive. I expect you to pick up the slack as well, Kurumi."

Did this _bitch_ just-?!The Spirits weren't _slack._ They were just as innocent as everyone else dragged into their _hell._

She needed his help. That was the only reason she was letting him live. But if he called those she cared about slack again, she'd wipe him from the face of the Earth, just like everyone else she fueled Zafkiel with.

Speaking of fuel...

"Is it AST or DEM?" Kurumi idly regarded the to-be corpse at her boots, bringing the boy's eyes back down to the Wizard. "I've been trying to cut down."

"It's evil. That's all that matters."

Evil? How could someone who lived so many lives still be so naïve?

"Oh, Narukami, so subjective. To her, _we're_ the evil ones. She's probably just a normal Wizard, trying to protect her innocent, naïve city for the _big, bad, Spirits!_ "

"She joined the DEM because she gets pleasure from killing. I came across her recalling all the things she'd want to do to kill Hermit."

Kurumi heard Homura choke from where she stood, but it sounded like it came from the end of a tunnel. Kurumi was a psychopath, sure. She often messed around before eating her meals; spicing and seasoning the meat a bit. It helped keep the violence from getting stale.

But a psychopath that wanted to kill sweet little Yoshino? Not even the Worst Spirit could let that one slide. Hermit had helped her in another time, and Kurumi honestly owed the girl her life.

Zafkiel appeared behind her, and Kurumi hefted her guns up with a crooked smile on her face. Homura whimpered behind her, and Sakura turned away to watch Ean off in the distance.

"What are some of the things she said, Narukami? I want some _ideas._ "

Yu's grin came out, about as rare as a lunar eclipse. For as long as she'd known _this_ incarnation of the boy, he was filled with malice for anything that'd mess up the future.

"Wait."

"Come _ON!_ Can't you give me a minute of time without hearing your voice?!"

Sakura glared from her position, finally deciding on something the didn't have to do with the one person she thought needed protecting. Kurumi still _really_ wanted to shoot her.

"We're changing things this time because too many people died. Do we _really_ need to be killing someone else?"

Kurumi groaned. She was shooting to get Homura on her side, and Kurumi _would not_ be able to say no to the redhead. It actually looked as if Homura was going to back up her fellow Deity, but seven words stopped all signs of impending rebellion.

"This is the Wizard that shot Ean."

Yu's words pacified the guardian Goddess. For a very small window of time, light began to leak from Sakura, a clear sign of her agitation. Thankfully, she seemed to reign her emotions in before the entire city exploded into a supernova, but it didn't stop Homura from cowering behind Kurumi.

Kurumi grinned at the look that crossed Sakura's face. Seeing her turn away defeated was almost better than getting time for free.

 _Almost._

* * *

Reine watched Shin's attempts at courting Tohka go… horribly right, in a sense. He just needed to keep her entertained and fed, and things would go smoothly. In a way, it reminded her of the far past, when she and her honey had gone on the very same dates and just enjoyed one another's presence.

She missed those bygone days where she ended up sucking the money directly out of someone's wallet. If she were young again… it would be _glorious._

That'd have to wait. She could reflect later. Shin needed a voice in his head telling him what to say.

"Tell her 'I'll only tell you what a date is if you have a good time today,' alright?"

Shido relayed the message, and his wallet was once again beaten in the dark alleyway by the mugger that was Tohka's stomach. How she inhaled all of that food was an unknown, but she'd need to test it once she was sealed.

They needed a stockpile of food at the Itsuka household _yesterday._

"H-hey, E-Ean…?"

Reine's attention on Shin and Tohka, the two of them currently in the midst of absorbing the boy's wallet and changing it into food, was yanked mercilessly away. Her blue eyes shot to Kotori, her Commander looking and sounding miserable. The girl was almost curled into a ball, pale and looking as if she was close to vomiting.

Ean had been watching the date carefully, sequentured off into the corner seat and furiously typing down what Reine had asked of him: personalized options for Shido to use to effectively manage the date at a better rate.

What did Kotori suddenly need of him that Reine couldn't take care of easier…?

"Yeah," the redhead spoke, finishing part of his task and turning to the Commander with a pure smile. "What's up?"

"I… n-need…"

The second Reine heard the weakness in Kotori's voice, she turned and opened a small drawer she always had in case of emergency. She'd gotten plenty of Angel Suppressors for her Commander's use, normally specially made into lollipops for ease and secrecy. It had been working for years now, but it seemed like they needed bigger doses.

Damn… they needed a better solution...

"Kotori? You alright? You look exhausted..."

Reine's jaw locked. If Ean had noticed, Shido wouldn't be far behind. That wasn't good whatsoever.

"I-u-um… could y-you step out momentarily?"

Ean blinked, and Reine watched firsthand as hurt spread across his face. The analyst could tell that the consequence of that demand could be catastrophic, especially it's how fickle the boy's emotions could be.

That meant it was time for damage control.

"You should check out your wound. The Commander has been having a few bad days. Just give her a minute if she needs it."

Ean nodded, but looked worriedly to the girl. Reine began to lead him away, but the boy had somehow slipped from her grasp and broke away from her gait, attacking the stairs with a light jog and moving to stand right beside Kotori. The foreigner pulled the younger girl into a hug that made Reine's eyebrows shoot up, then moved away quickly and left the room.

Reine watched Kotori pull closer to herself with a whimper more befitting of her white ribboned persona. Ean had given her a hug that looked like he'd channeled his inner Shido, a hug that probably would've made Reine feel better if she was in a rut, and Kotori looks even worse?

" _It's Camael,_ " she'd said the day prior. Voices, chanting, belief that her thoughts were being influenced by her Angel. The analyst was worried that Kotori's control was slipping, but the redhead had claimed that she hadn't been tapping into her abilities for anything.

Without a desire to alert everyone else, despite how the Fraxinus crew had all noticed Kotori's current predicament, Reine silently opened up the Spirit Data they'd collected. She shifted from Tohka's opened document, passed Hermit, and glared at the Efreet folder.

Hang tight, Kotori. Reine will get you the help you need.

* * *

That was… interesting.

Ean wondered just what was up with Kotori today. She was completely fine yesterday, joking with him as they tortured Shido, and sucking on a lollipop like everything was completely fine. Twenty-four hours had passed, and now she looked like she was miserable in her own skin. Just what had happened to her?

Reine seemed to know, and no matter how good she thought she was at lying, Ean saw straight through her. She seemed to know what was going on with Kotori and could probably give him answers if he pried hard enough. He'd need to know what to pry _about_ , and that was a completely different story.

Ean caught sight of himself in the mirror of the changing area, looking more disheveled than usual. He merely sighed and pried off his shirt, keeping his eyes from the scars that bothered him so much. Strangely enough, whenever he was by Tohka, he seemed to never have phantom pains...

Speaking of pain, it was time to get down to business and take care of what he promised to. He removed Shido's tight bandaging slowly, waiting for the searing of pain to tear into him again and leave him a bleeding pile on the floor.

He expected the blood to be clotted by now, and it thankfully was. It just left a deep red smear on his side; one he'd rather to be gone. He wetted his fingers with the sink and gently began to rub the blood away.

Strange… normally, he'd feel pressure on it, mainly because the light scabbing would be hard against his soft skin. Curiously, he scrubbed harder, looking at the wound on his side with something akin to tension growing in his brain.

The boy was absolutely astounded to see a complete lack of gunshot wounds.

"Wha…? H-how did….? _WHAT?!"_

That didn't make _any_ sense! No way, no matter what anyone tried to convince him with, could he completely heal a bullet wound overnight, _and_ without scarring! That was utter bullshit! Yet, here he was!

Was it a Realizer? He hadn't _used_ a medical Realizer in his life, but would that have done it?

That would mean someone had been in the Itsuka house, gotten into his room while he slept, pulled his bandages off without waking him, applied the Realizer which probably let out some obnoxious light or noise judging by everything on the Fraxinus, and kept it there long enough to heal his wound. None of that even counted the likely extremely painful operation of pulling a bullet from his insides.

So he called full-on bullshit. Hell would freeze over before he accepted it as the truth!

That was, up until he caught sight of something blood red, resting just above the indent of scar tissue on his right pectoral, which completely drove his thoughts from the lack of a wound or scarring.

He knew for a fact that he didn't have any scars on his collarbone. If he did, he would have drowned himself in turtleneck sweaters and willingly lived out the rest of his life in sweaty woolen agony. It was only a miracle that let him wear collarless shirts and v-necks, so he did the very thing he wanted so desperately and looked normal. He _knew_ with all of his being that there were no markings on him below his collar.

So when he saw a blood red mark, slightly off to the right shoulder, he wondered when in the hell he'd gotten it.

It didn't seem like any of his other scars. No scar tissue compromised it; it was set on unblemished skin. The blood red was practically a flashing neon sign that said it wasn't just another healed wound from the car accident he was in.

And the _shape_. Unnerving as all hell. At first he would've said that it looked like some rune or something, trying to find an image that wasn't there. The mark looked like someone had painstakingly drawn it on his chest with the world's steadiest hand.

It was… archaic. It was like doodle you'd see on someone's homework when they got bored.

 _The last thing he saw, glowing a bright red in the darkness of unconsciousness, was an eye. It stared him down, and for some reason…_

 _He could tell it was smiling._

Ean flinched away as if he'd been burned. The dream from his first time on the Fraxinus came to mind. The burning Tengu City, the Fraxinus crashed into the center of the city, the figure that attacked him, the girl that _saved_ him. Saved was used very loosely, considering everything.

The very end, he saw the exact same image while on the verge of waking up. Now it was branded into his _skin._ He knew enough to at least feel like whatever the mark was had been responsible for whatever healed his wound.

It just begged the question: What the hell was happening to him?!

* * *

She'd followed Shido all day. She could accept that without issue.

What she _couldn't_ was that Princess had been with him the entire time. Wasting Shido's time and money that he could rightfully be using on the girl that mattered.

Her.

Origami.

His _girlfriend._

When that wench had almost coaxed him into a love hotel, Origami almost snapped then and there. She had wanted a hit then and there, just to bring down the entire force of the AST on the Spirit's head for disrespecting the one who'd been there for her, even if his memories had faded. In fact, Ryouko was the only reason Origami kept off from obliterating the entire _sudden district of date areas_ , by promising her this.

A sniping point, illuminated under the sunset that Princess was using to confuse Shido. She'd gladly kill her for manipulating him.

When Origami was given the order to fire, she was more than happy to go ahead and pull the trigger. Princess would be gone, and Shido would be safe. Origami wouldn't even care if he hated her for it - as long as he was safe, nothing else mattered. She'd continue to hunt Spirits uninhibited until none were left. Life would be normal then.

She'd had Princess in her sights before the order on her life was even given.

That was, until the feeling set in.

She realized something was immediately wrong when the hair on the back of her neck stood tall. The white haired girl threw herself away from her sniping point and narrowly avoided the katana that had bit into the ground her spine had just been.

He was her age. Short grey hair, cold grey eyes, and a school uniform she didn't recognize. The blade in his grasp was painfully average, as was he in general. It made her that much more wary.

Something was wrong with the situation. No one should've been able to get to where she'd chosen without a CR-Unit. Furthermore, no civilian should've been carrying a katana anyways.

"Move or you get shot," was her terse statement to him, pointing the Cry-Cry-Cry at him. She only found about half a gun in her hand, cleaved in half so quickly that she didn't even register movement.

"I'm not letting you get in the way," was all that he replied with, face expressionless. Origami's eyes narrowed. Another person like Shido and his friend?

Her No Pain engaged. His charge was fast. Not Spirit fast, but _fast_. It was just a normal sprint.

When he weaved past three consecutive slashes that were managed in the span of a second, she knew that her opponent was no normal human.

She danced away from a slash that could've bisected her at the torso and parried a thrust at her thigh, rewarding her opponent a gash in his arm an-

" _No blood,_ " was the quickest thing she realized. Origami had been positive that she struck him; the cut tore through the sleeve on his shirt in a way that would've been impossible otherwise. That wasn't good.

Her thrust at his throat missed by mere inches. The swing angled for his chest cut a single strand of hair from her enemy's bangs. The stomp at his knee missed, leaving her wide open.

His fist came from nowhere. For a moment, all the white haired girl saw were flashes of color and motion. Desperate enough for anything, she brought up her No Pain in a defensive stance and swung at the quickest sign of movement.

The first noise he made was one of surprise. The second was one of annoyance.

The Wizard regained her bearings and was met with the sight of a weapon meant to tear through the Astral Dress of a Spirit sparking across the edge of a bland and normal katana.

Origami was given no time to contemplate that and was rewarded for her seconds of hesitation with another fist to her face. The fairly simple attack left Master Sergeant Tobiichi staggering to a boy who looked as bland as a sheet of paper.

That _pissed her off._ She needed to finish him quickly and completely the operation. An overhead chop, the very same used against Princess in their battle the day prior. This boy didn't have Shido's friend to get in the way, and he was too close to deflect with his heavier metal weapon.

He seized her by the neck in an instant and crushed her defenseless body against what felt like a tree. She didn't even have time to get up her Territory. All she knew was pain and blood dripping down her chin.

The katana came a moment later, biting at her head like a wild dog. The first stab came in a moment of cluelessness, and Origami paid for it with a long and painful cut across her left cheek. His weapon being pulled back gave her the concentration she needed. She brought up her No Pain and deflected the next stab, bringing a foot up and slamming it as hard as she could into his gut.

He wasn't even _fazed._ She tried again, hitting groin this time. Even _less_ of a reaction. In fact, he seemed to be standing taller. He was toying with her.

She flexed her Territory, the energy shield forcing him back, no matter how strong he was. Origami could feel his hand still trying to constrict her throat and forced it away, catching her breath.

He was monstrous and serious about killing her. She should've realized sooner that he wasn't exactly normal.

She pulled her pistol on him, hoping to have the edge quickly enough to call for backup. She unloaded the entire clip, half expecting him to deflect them with his katana. Instead, a wall of flame exploded from the floor before him and melted the bullets to slag before they came close to him.

When the flames died, he was smiling. Origami gnashed her teeth and prepared for another rush. That rush never came, and she was met with a strangely mesmerizing sight.

His fist opened, palm to the sky, and a single card appeared to hover before it. The Wizard didn't know what to make of it, but it confirmed his powers in a way that she would've disregarded if it was just fire.

He smashed the card, and the _last thing_ on Origami's mind was fighting the boy. A figure appeared behind the boy, who was smirking mercilessly. The girl's blue eyes regarded the creature he'd brought into the world: its curves, colors, shapes, and felt confusion for the first time since she was a kid.

Why was it _flaccid?_

It turned to face her, a grin on its _head._ The wheels that held it up began to spin, and the beast began to move towards her. Origami moved back, preferring to keep at least five meters, but would prefer fifty. Then it roared, and tentacles that were unseen before extruded from its back and attacked her. She took to the sky, shuddering when the thing turned to keep facing her and continue its attack.

She needed an out. Princess could wait.

"This is Origami! We need backup, STAT!"

She ducked as a tentacle came lunging at her head, wondering just how she was going to get away from this new Spirit - Summoner, she presumed she'd write on her report. This Spirit could be the one to live. Someone else could deal with it.

" **COME TO MOTHER MARA, LITTLE GIRL!** "

Was a Spirit summoning a giant penis on a chariot even close to normal?

* * *

Origami's distress call was received well. A group of fifteen Wizards leapt into action, taking to the skies from the treeline. Not even five seconds after they were called, Wizards started dropping like flies, much to her _ecstatic_ joy.

Kurumi grinned as bullet after bullet flew, a light chuckle making it through her teeth. It was just so much fun! Like a carnival game!

"Homu! You should light the _forest on fire!_ "

"Kurumi, what the actual hell?!"

* * *

Shido probably should vow to never take a girl out on another date as long as he lived.

He'd just been talking with Tohka, finally getting out what he desperately wanted to say, and all hell had broken loose. Wizards were going back and forth, dropping like flies to the… _thing_ chasing them in its magical flying chariot and wrapping its feelers around them. It was a giant - was that even a fetish? Tentacle Chariot Domination?

He didn't know how it had happened, but he just assumed that the creature had lit the forest on fire too, and that the never ending giggling was coming from it.

And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, Tohka had leaned over with a question that would've been perfect for any _other_ occasion: "Is this normal for Earth?"

He turned to the purple haired Spirit, who regarded him with wide innocent eyes, and assumed the fetal position.

"No, Tohka. This is _not_ normal."

"Oh. Okay!"

He shuddered at the flopping of the thing's tongue, grimacing in disgust. Honestly, it looked like a cat playing with a bunch of toys.

A Wizard that seemed a modicum more composed than the rest caught sight of the boy and girl and sprinted over. Tohka's Astral Dress and Sandalphon appeared, but the woman didn't even give her a second look and spun past Tohka's thrusters attempt on her life and stomped right to Shido. She grabbed him by the shoulders and jostled him with a small terrified squeak sneaking out of the boy.

"Did you do this?! Did you do this?! Was this you?!"

He looked at her in dismay, to the creature, back to her, to Tohka's waving figure behind him, to the woman, to the creature, then back to the woman.

"I wouldn't ask that _thing_ for help even if I was at gunpoint!"

The woman just looked at him dumbfoundedly and sighed. She pulled him a few meters from where he stood just in time to avoid the charioteer that had rolled past, its tongue flopping about in an even more disgusting way than before.

Shido followed its path with his eyes, wincing as a Wizard got trampled by the wheels on the creature. The woman beside him groaned in sympathetic pain.

"You should get out of here. This is the danger that follows Spirits."

She tried to pull Shido away from Tohka, get them to break the hold they had on the other's hand. Frankly, it was insulting that she even tried to pry him away from her.

"I'm not abandoning Tohka. The spacequakes aren't her fault!"

She glared at the boy that made it positive that she thought him a fool and looked prepared to give him a tongue lashing, but her attention was caught by Tohka, who had pointed Sandalphon at her with a look of murder on her face.

Shido shot the Spirit a silent beg to stand down and looked back to the Wizard, who just looked surprised at the boy's conviction.

"I'm part of a group that's trying to deal with the Spirits in a peaceful manner. Please," he said, looking the woman down with hope in his eyes.

For a moment, she looked at him like he was crazy. Then her eyes shot to Tohka, who had let Sandalphon fall to the side by Shido's pleading look. The woman looked at the Spirit for a few seconds, seemingly attempting to form an opinion on the girl.

She looked back to the bluenette, and despite the firefight that was currently ongoing and failing to put down the creature of nightmares, he remained stalwart.

"When this is all taken care of, go to the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force headquarters and ask for Ryouko Kusakabe. I want to talk about the Spirits with you."

Shido's heart soared. Ryouko grinned at the teen and put a hand to the communicator on her ear, her eyes sharp once more. The order she barked into the device just made Shido feel all that much better.

"Forget about Princess! Just get away from whatever that thing is!"

Shido turned to Tohka, a smile wide on his face. She didn't seem to understand the implications of the situation, but it might make everything much easier for Ratatoskr and the Spirits. She wouldn't be hunted! She wouldn't need to worry about him disappearing, nor about having to be forced to become Lost again.

She could live.

"Get to somewhere safe, you two. Some of the Wizards under my command have a tendency to ignore orders."

The two teenagers shared a concerned look as the woman sped off to collect her underlings. Almost immediately after she left, a Wizard ended up sprawled on the ground at their feet and followed by a couple of angered individuals who likely believed them to be the cause of terror.

Tohka had no trouble getting the bluenette back and taking them on herself, dispatching the frazzled and incoherent enemies mercifully. She even beaned a Wizard on the head with Sandalphon, but was cut away from the bluenette by narrowly avoiding the phallic nightmare that was skirting around. Shido quickly noticed that it seemed to not worry about the plum haired girl and thanked whatever messed up gods out there that he wouldn't need to explain anything about an interaction with it to her.

She darted out of view with the sound of something exploding with dangerous intensity. Shido could feel that sweat on his face sliding down his cheek as a ray of energy shot into the sky, accompanied by even more screaming.

"Tohka," he sighed exasperatedly, "she told us to leave. Not join the fight."

The girl that had been bowled over at his feet seized him by the tie with panic in her eyes, holding a No Pain to his neck and eyeing the monster that was tearing apart the AST with ease.

"Make it stop! Call it off!"

Shido swallowed and felt the weapon cut against his Adam's apple. He could see the insanity clouding her eyes and was all the more worried about what might happen to him.

She slumped dead against his shoulder. The hole that appeared in her forehead told him as much.

Someone seized the corpse and tossed it away like it hadn't just been a living, breathing person. It left Shido to see the one who'd done such a terrible deed, and forced him to hear the terrifying giggle that she let out.

She was a gothic lolita, like a girl Tonomachi had once leered over. That was where her innocence ended.

She was soaked in blood, skin and clothes drenched in the crimson ichor. In her hands rested a flintlock pistol and rifle, both weapons smoking. She smiled at him, and it wasn't a smile he ever would've wanted to see.

She was close enough to his face that he could see his own reflection in her eyes and notice what she seemed so interested in. A splat of blood from the corpse had gotten onto his cheek.

The girl's fingers ran softly on his face as she leaned closer and closer.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, sounding very unconcerned with his expression. "I just have fun playing with my food."

Shido whimpered in return. She didn't just wipe the blood off of his face: she _licked_ it off.

Confusion, terror, and maybe a bit of embarrassment came to him in a cyclone. She grabbed him by the chin and bent his head to the side to get at the ichor, giggling as he tried to get away. She eventually let go, and he just looked at her in terror.

Her eyes were mismatched. One was a dark red, like the color of the blood that was splattered across her skin and clothes. The eye regarded him like he was prey for a wild animal, keeping his mouth locked shut.

The other was a gold clock in place of an iris. The hands of the device ticked slowly and mechanically.

He feared those eyes.

"Get up, Shido~ playtime isn't over yet."

His breath hitched in his chest as she licked her lips hungrily at him. He wanted to scurry away, get distance between him and this… nightmare. The hands wrapping around his neck kept him pinned.

"Get away from Shido!"

Sandalphon threatened to tear the lolita's head off of her shoulders, but the girl gave a small chuckle and evaded with complete ease. It hadn't mattered either way, Tohka used the chance to place herself between Shido and the girl. She quickly looked him up and down for injuries, worry all over her face.

"Don't worry, Tohka. Little Shido will be safe for now."

The eyes of Shido and Tohka both flashed back to the girl, who had started walking backward leisurely, a wide grin on her face. Tohka had thankfully kept Sandalphon ready for use even when their enemy had let her guard down.

"Don't be a stranger, Shido-san~"

She vanished into the shadows of the treeline, and Tohka held him close. He held desperately onto her.

Images of the dead girl and those eyes were stained into his brain. He didn't even realize he was shaking until Tohka had pressed herself against him.

She knew his _name…_

"Shido, we need to get away from here! It's too dangerous for you!"

The bluenette felt himself nod, more focused on trying to purge the images from his mind. Tohka helped him back to his feet, the girl flinching into his side when a line of bullets tore into the ground beside them. It only served as a reminder to what had just happened.

Shido choked when something seized him by the collar and launched into the air, but every fiber of his body was hoping that Tohka had grabbed him and flew away from the Wizards that had attacked.

That belief was disproved when he realized Tohka was supporting his torso, a look of concentration as they weaved through the field of gunfire to avoid the penis chariot.

On a whim, he glanced up, seeing the head of copper hair flopping about as he tore through the air, his teeth bared as his concentration blocked everything else out. His brown eyes flickered down for half a second, taking note of the boy's slack amazement.

"Head down! It's hard enough flying while holding you as is, you damn sack of bricks!"

Shido closed his mouth and just looked forwards, feeling like he was sitting on a rollercoaster. Ean and Tohka flew fast and hard - Ean likely aided by Kannazuki - tearing past confusion and chaos. The three were almost clotheslined by another long tentacle, which led to Shido witnessing Ean's eyes bulge out of his head at the creature.

"Can either of you explain just what the _fuck_ is happening?! Is the dick chariot a Spirit?! Do you turn into that thing, Tohka?!"

No. Just… _no._

"What the hell is that?!"

Shido barely managed to react to Ean's sudden shout. The Spirit and Wizard veered off to the left with barely enough time to spare, screaming as a giant blast of light tore past them and to the battlefield. Shido didn't know light could smell, but the stench of… hell, he didn't know, clouds? It was choking him.

Or maybe that was Tohka's strong grip on his neck when something exploded and horrid screaming belted out in its wake.

"Was that an arrow?! THAT LOOKED LIKE A GIANT ARROW!"

The bluenette didn't worry about what had happened behind them, but was focused on the single figure illuminated by the sunset high above them. She was beautiful, with long and flowing blonde hair. In her hands sat a large golden bow, one she'd pulled back to release more beams of light.

He worried that she was a Spirit for merely a second. The force that sat on his shoulders was unlike anything else. It didn't feel like Tohka had the first day they'd met. It felt like something larger, _stronger._

"That's-!"

The redhead's eyes were stuck on the girl, and Shido could tell that his concentration had completely vanished. Shido gripped onto Ean's arm, and the bluenette could see the confusion and indecisiveness in the boy's eyes.

"We have to leave alive, don't we?"

Conviction spread onto the redhead's face and tore his eyes away from the blonde girl, more intent on the city and a safe place to land.

Shido was silent as the sounds of the battle faded away, trying his best to not remember the lolita girl whatsoever. He was only snapped from his stupor when his feet hit concrete and his two flying friends touched down next to his sides, Ean complaining about how this arms had fallen asleep and that Shido was fat. Tohka giggled and flashed a wide smile to the bluenette.

They knew that he was mulling over what just happened, Ean likely without the specifics. They just wanted to make him feel better.

He pulled the two into a group hug, biting his lip to keep the images away from his head.

" **Shin.** "

The voice of Reine, who'd been mostly quiet while the chaos had happened, popped into his ear. Ean picked up for him, answering in place of the obviously disheveled bluenette.

"Reine? What's up?"

" **Kotori wanted me to tell you that it's time for the 'you-know-what'."**

Ean frowned and looked to Shido with a mask of confusion on his face. Shido prayed his face hadn't become the tomato red that- never mind, his face and hair just became opposites.

"Tohka, we need to kiss."

"Buh- EXCUSE ME?"

"What's a kiss?"

The bluenette sighed and rattled off a quick explanation of what a kiss was until Ean had gotten exasperated and shoved the two into one another.

The kiss was quick and Shido was completely unprepared. He didn't get a chance to enjoy it, but he was there for the fallout. Shido was red, Tohka was red, and they were awkwardly close.

"U-um… guys?"

Shido wanted to whirl around and punch Ean in the face for jumping him when he wasn't prepared, but the look of mortification on his face was one that dragged Shido's eyes to what the redhead was so focused on.

Tohka's rapidly dissolving clothes was the only thing he registered.

His kiss had just...

Melted...

C-clothes...

Shido was dumbfounded. Tohka was confused. Ean was shocked.

" **Well… that's certainly unexpected.** "

Truer words had never been spoken.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

"Did you _have_ to use Mara?!"

Sakura Hikari jabbed the Wild Card with one of her arrows, remembering the look of terror on her darling's face as he escaped with the other boy and the Spirit. To give him what little credit the Fledgling Goddess felt he deserved, Yu had made it so none of the three teens were hurt in the scuffle, doing his part in keeping Origami Tobiichi from assassinating anyone well.

But traumatizing numerous people who were just doing their jobs wasn't part of the plan! No one died, so they weren't messing with chance unneededly, but to witness a giant green genital rolling around screeching how it was Mother Mara, the Buddhist equivalent of Satan, and it wanted people to come to her?

Sakura shuddered at the memory of the beast. She watched it roll off into the distance with her own two pink eyes, forgetting about Kurumi and Homura to make sure it wouldn't come anywhere near her or her Darling.

"At least it's gone now…"

Sakura heard the boy she was jabbing make some offending noise. She glanced up to his face, noticing how the edges of his lips were attempting to curl upwards.

"Wait," she mumbled, realizing something was horribly off when the boy who never showed her any physical emotion began to smirk. The revelation that he'd done something so terrible and hadn't taken responsibility for it was sickening to her stomach.

"Narukami... did you even dispel Mara?"

Yu's smirk grew.

* * *

Tonomachi screamed his little heart out as the _creature_ backed him into an alleyway, the long and slobbering red tongue tasting the air for his fear. The wheels on it screeched louder than he could ever manage, and the giggling that came from it was unnerving to say the least.

Then the tentacles came.

Tonomachi pissed himself and cried.

" **Don't be sad,** _ **boy.**_ **Mother Mara will keep you…** _ **very warm**_ **.** "

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

* * *

Getting Tohka to their home was a hassle that Ean would rather not talk about. Sure, it took about a minute via teleportation, but it was what could've happened in that minute that made him stress like hell. Just one off glance was all it would've taken for the cops to be called because of public nudity. Of course, the Fraxinus could've just picked them back up, but then people with influential power over society would've seen three teenagers vanish into thin air.

Who would he call for bail if his crime was being a supposed alien?

For a moment, Ean believed that all they could use to cover Tohka was an obnoxiously large chicken pillow that appeared in their home when they arrived, probably due to the Fraxinus, and practically had an aneurysm. Shido took care of most of Tohka's needs himself, thank the lords. It felt like all of them needed to just hit unconsciousness as fast as possible. The bluenette had quickly taken to his room, but the redhead watched Tohka follow almost minutes later to sleep with him.

Get your mind out of the gutter… there's only one bed in there, and Tohka had no clue about what sex was.

It just left the foreigner alone in his own room, plagued with thoughts and anxiety that wouldn't release the hold it had on him and let him sleep. He had worries about how they'd get Tohka to integrate into society, how to help explain the sudden presence of Shido's girlfriend without him ever mentioning her before in his life, and more.

The more was Ean's real problem. The more was the fact that a _fucking bullet_ had vanished from his flesh like it had never been there before. The more was the sudden appearance of some crazy looking symbol branded on his skin without ever knowing of its origin. The symbol that first appeared to him in a dream alongside the girl he'd just seen in reality. The girl who told him that she'd protect Shido and Kotori.

The redhead glared at the eye on his shoulder and groaned, barely resisting the urge to smother himself with his pillow and ask God himself for the answers.

He was above killing himself. He _wasn't_ above screaming obscenities into his pillow.

Man, why did this have to happen to _him?_ Hadn't life doled out enough cup shots?

He bet that if he was Shido, things would just fall into place without having to raise a finger.

No! No, he wasn't _spiteful!_ It wasn't like he had an attractive girl on top of him as he slept and he didn't have a damn clue. Not like he had an entire entourage of people helping him get into a girl's pants. It wasn't like Ean _cared_ that the bluenette's _kiss_ could melt the _clothes off OF A HOT GIRL!_

He muffled his face into his pillow and screamed.

He glared into his comforting covers, just trying to think. A Dick Chariot appears when Shido goes out on a date with a transdimensional being, Ean himself takes one step on Japanese soil and his life turns into the supporting character of an anime with some secret being apparently watching out for him, and now he's got to deal with the pondering of how those two things were connected.

Dicks, Spirits, red marks, anime, and dream girls... how did it all connect?

"Alright, damn it, looks like I ain't sleeping…"

The boy untangled himself from his covers and pushed the thoughts of the world's inequalities from his mind. He caught sight of his scarred torso in the mirror on the wall, his eyes zeroing in on the red nuisance on his shoulder. He extended both of his middle digits at it and made sure to throw on a shirt, ignoring the sweating. It was time for him to find some damn answers.

He threw himself down in front of his computer and delved deep into the web that was the internet. He sat in his chair for hours, scrolling, clicking, groaning, muttering swears, resisting the urge to put a fist through his monitor, and more.

The chariot of genitalia was a no-go. He had to clear his history after seeing the results that popped up.

The mark was the same, expect for the explicit sites that accompanied the past search. Nothing about the symbol appeared.

Nothing about the girl either. The roster at Raizen was name only, and looking at other schools nearby, such as Rindouji, netted him similar results.

Finally, the red eyes.

The redhead pounded his face against the keyboard, pissed at the failure of the world. The internet should've held all the secrets he needed answered! All he got was a wikihow talking about vampires! He chopped that one from the list without hesitation.

The sun started peeking through the curtains at about hour six of perusing online, which meant Shido would awaken soon and realize that Tohka was on hi-

"WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The redhead glared at the screen of his computer and listened to the embarrassed screaming filling the second floor of the household. He glared to the room just beyond his wall, which sounded as if a bull was prancing around without a penchant for order.

Ean sighed and reached to turn off the computer, meeting the reflection of a broken human being on the other side with eyes so red that it looked like he'd poured sand into them.

Good God, it even spread to his irises-

Brown replaced the red, and the boy stared dumbfoundedly at his own reflection. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and then looked again. Brown.

What was…?

Red eyes, red eye on his shoulder…

Okay, seriously, what the fuck is going on?

"AM I GOING INSANE?!" He raged at his computer, doubting his mental state.

* * *

Tohka laid in the contraption, Shido at her side. She didn't know exactly what it was, but Shido had taken the cover on it and crawled into the fluffy depths. If he could do it as the normal human he was, Tohka assumed a Spirit should likely be capable of doing the same.

It took a moment to figure out how to get in. The layers seemed like they weren't supposed to move, and for a horrid second she thought Shido was trapped within. The Spirit reached out her arm and prepared to blow whatever it was to smithereens for attacking the boy, but quickly realized that the bluenette wasn't in any type of pain. In fact, he almost looked comfortable, like she was in Adonai Melek. That was what got her to get in and join him.

It didn't feel metallic, like the creature that performed a Fusion that Shido identified as a train. It was soft all around and it had a nice warmth. It let her ponder her own thoughts she she laid in the darkness for what felt like forever.

She was allowed to stay. Shido had let her into his home and his _world_ , and trusted her. She'd hurt and maimed people, even killed a few that had been particularly ruthless, not even counting those who were stuck in the chaos of her more ruthless appearances, yet he didn't bat an eye.

A snarky voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Ean shouted about how he was an idiot.

The Mecha-Mecha Squad attacked her because she was dangerous, and they were right. They had every reason in the world to do so, yet Shido had come into contact with her and them and had decided his own fate. Furthermore, the redhead that helped them that slept in the other room knew about her. Ean had the same weapons that the Mecha-Mecha Squad did, but he helped them. Maybe he could help her understand the world alongside Shido!

Was this the true power of friendship? It made her feel tingly all over, but not really in an embarrassing way like when she saw Shido staring at her during their date, something in his eyes making them sparkle. It was a comfortable squeeze in her chest, like a warm hand over her heart. She reached up to test the spot and touched skin.

Why was there a hand on her chest?

"WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The scream shook her from her thoughts and scared her enough to flail, letting out her own terrified shout as she fought off whatever creature had attacked her. Tohka leapt from the bed and hit her leg on the object beside Shido's sleep capsule, and the skins on the object wrapped around her and sent her straight to the floor. She vaguely heard the sound of something breaking from her spot with the wood in her face.

Wait, if the creature was breaking things, that meant that Shido was in danger!

"Don't worry Shido," Tohka roared, connecting the dots and believing that the Spirit that had attacked Shido the day prior had returned for him. She wasn't going to let him get hurt!

She threw herself to her feet and stomped her heel onto the floor, accidentally punching a hole in the floor with her haste, and her eyes snapped to where Shido was. The coverings of his sleep capsule were moving as if something were rustling within. Muffled sounds came from the depths of the bulge, panicked and frantic. She was right! Shido was in danger!

"I'll save you!"

She called out for Sandalphon, but realized that her call had gone unheard. Her Angel wasn't appearing, and the movement was getting more frantic. Tohka swore she heard Shido call her name! She needed to get that evil Spirit away from him!

"Tohka Body Slam, GO!"

* * *

Kotori heard something shatter and wanted to shatter someone in return. It was the first good rest she'd gotten since her Angel decided to get sassy with her, and it just slipped from her hands like sand through her fingers.

 **Nice idiom!**

"Oh my God, shut _up,_ " Kotori bit back at it before it started talking again. It got really damn annoying when it started talking.

 **Not until you change it. I won't leave until that happens.**

"What the hell is _it?!_ " Kotori's demand wasn't answered, and it pissed her off even more than expected. "You keep bringing up that same mantra, but you don't tell me what it is that needs to be changed! You give me all of these damn headaches whenever the nerd of my household shows up, keep me from sleeping with your prattling, and I vomited because of you yesterday!"

 **Can you really blame me for that?**

"I missed Shido sealing Tohka because of you! I was going to tease him to Hell about how it dissolves the clothes of a Spirit!"

Something like snickering filled her senses, and Kotori wanted to wring the intangible voice's neck.

 **Maybe I'm just the voice of karma,** it mused in her head. Kotori let out a roar of agony and pounded her face into her pillow until something hurt.

"I swear to God, I'm going to get you out of my head."

Something else shattered from Shido's room. Both she and the voice ignored it together.

 **I'm not what you should be worried about. That boy-**

"Ah! I don't give a _shit!_ I'll quote-unquote 'fear' Ean the day when he learns how to be an actual Wizard! Until then, I'll enjoy how he's willing to help us with the Spirits and tease Shido mercilessly!"

 **Kotori, I'm attempting to help you. He's dangerous. He's an enigma. You saw his eyes flash red, and you** _ **know**_ **the only other person that happens to is chock full of Spirit Mana. Don't you think it's strange? How the second he appears, Shido gets wrapped up in all the problems you hid him from until you thought he was ready? I doubt he's even human, likely a Spi-**

"I need to tell him about Roaring Blast Flash Wave!"

 **Don't converse with him, you foo-**

Kotori cut it off with something she'd yet to try. She loosened her hold on her Angel.

The air got hotter around her. Something akin to her Astral Dress attempted to form from the sweltering heat, but she didn't go that far. It wouldn't be good to bake everyone in the house.

The voice stopped.

"Hello? Creepy voice in my head," she called out to the silence in her room, testing her theory, "there's an innocent teenage girl here with a brain to annoy half to death. Come and get it! I'll put an apple in my mouth if that makes it more enticing."

Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened.

Kotori jumped for joy. It was connected to her Angel, so if she _used_ said Angel, it couldn't complain and annoy her! She was better!

Wait, she couldn't get too happy yet. She needed to test her next hypothesis: would it stick? Her skull hurt when she was by Ean because who the hell knew, so if it didn't now, than all she had to do was keep her powers going.

She calmed herself, forcing as much heat back as possible. She watched herself in the mirror as the burning air around her faded further and further back, until she just looked normal. It was satisfying to see herself back in hopefully full health.

When she stepped out of her room, she expected to see Shido and Tohka finished with whatever was happening to them, but instead was met with silence. The sound of a door opening allowed their homestay access to the hall, his eyes focused hard on the floor as he muttered to himself. It was now or never.

"Hey! There's the man of the hour!"

Ean glanced up from his sight of the floor, surprise etched onto his face. Confusion and concern quickly replaced it when he saw her, and Kotori animatedly waggled her eyebrows in return.

"Kotori," he asked, pure skepticism laced so deeply into his voice she was convinced he could drown in it, "you're… not… freaked? No barfy sweating? Not curled up in a ball and barely managing to get out a sentence?"

Okay, her head didn't hurt, but her feelings did.

"Alright, say that again, and I make Kannazuki give you hell in training," she deadpanned. Ean paled and gave a quick nod.

"Ah," he mumbled, "cool. Good to see you back in Commander Mode. I… think."

She grinned, both at him and over her success. Oh, it felt so good to be back to normal~

"Man, did it get like, ten degrees hotter in this house while I slept?"

The Commander squeaked. She forced the heat that had been quietly seeping out back before the redhead noticed.

 **HE'S DAN-**

She let her control slip again, and the voice vanished once more. A bit of finagling was required before it felt like a comfortable heat. She glanced back up to the boy, whose eyes were on her like a spotlight.

"Kotori, what the hell was that?"

Kotori didn't get a chance to make an excuse as Shido's door flew off of its hinges.

The owner of the room and door dashed out, covered in a blanket, and a very angry and practically nude Tohka was on top of his writhing form, punching, biting, and kicking at him, screaming something about an evil Spirit. The combination of not having his sight, the struggle, and the shouting drowned out Ean's halfhearted attempt to warn them of the staircase.

The thirteen year old winced as the boy and Spirit hit two walls, lost their balance, and tumbled down the stairs, shouting in pain as they rolled away in a heap. She watched as they hit the bottom and tumbled out of sight.

"Seriously," The boy beside her grumbled, "how the hell does that even work?"

She watched him carefully, making sure that his attention was off what had happened. It was too close for comfort. She needed to be much more careful, but needed to keep up appearances.

"Prepare yourself. I was out of commission yesterday, so I wasn't able to tease him during their date."

His eyes - the very same that Kotori needed to know actually turned red - snapped back to her, more lax. Ean smirked over a thought.

"What was up with Nakatsugawa? The guy was in a goddamn maid outfit."

Kotori was surprised to hear that The Crew had actually been forced to use Operation: Maydhem. She'd been out of the room for only a short amount of time when Reine had finally decided enough was enough and gave her a full checkup.

She owed Woodman twenty bucks. She thought those idiots would never have to go that far.

"Don't worry about that. Worry about Shido's mental stability after a day of him running into Tohka with her in various states of undress."

The red headed boy frowned and sighed.

"I think I'll live."

Kotori smirked in response.

He left the house before lunch.

* * *

Ean walked down a bustling street in the depths of the city. The crowd about him had lives to go to, so he found himself flowing down the street, taking as much time as he cared to think about his predicament. It sounded like anime bullshit, but said anime bullshit was happening to him, so he needed to take care of said anime bullshit.

Did it start when he landed in Japan? It before, and if so, how far back? If it wasn't, why was it affecting him?

And why did it feel like he was forgetting something extremely important?

He could pop into a library and see if he could find anything whatsoever relating to red eyes and Japan in general, but it was such a strange topic that he doubted that he'd manage to find anything of importance. He'd need to figure out where the hell the library in Tengu was in the first place.

He seriously doubted that he'd exhausted all of the places on the internet that he could look for answers on. His problem was that he didn't know nearly enough to make better searches and narrow down possibilities. There had to be some disease in him or _something._ Was it going to affect his daily life? Others?

He looked over the street. People clambered to their jobs - it was only a vacation for students, after all - and his eyes caught the sight of a small store: the Hee-Ho Mart. He expected a larger chain that he at least recognized, but he just assumed that the Hee-Ho Mart was a Japanese localized branch and didn't think much of it.

He stepped inside with an objective to maybe find some eye drops, maybe some type of medicine, or anything so he wouldn't freak himself out or anyone he knew. A ponytailed redhead greeted him from behind the counter and he nodded politely back.

He pursued his thoughts more than he did the shelved foods and objects. He was worried - of course he was worried. How long had it been happening? What caused it? What were the chances that he hadn't noticed something wrong long before? Furthermore, Shido was panicking about a girl with a red eye and a clock eye. He didn't want to give his friend a flashback because his eyes suddenly decided to go redder than a dwarf star.

He'd told everyone about it before Kotori turned his day into a series of unfortunate situations involving partial nudity. It explained Tohka's earlier behavior, and it made Kotori decide to increase the time Ean would spend training. He didn't even complain about that one; he'd need to be capable of fighting as a Wizard if he even wanted a chance to last in a battle if he resurfaced.

He couldn't traumatize Shido by accident. He needed to figure out what was going on and put an end to it, or he could find a temporary solution. Seeing as his attempts to determine whatever was wrong with him were failing, he needed to take option number two.

What if he got brown contacts? That might work, if so, then things would be mu-

He turned the corner and hit something so hard that it felt like he did a flip straight into a meat grinder. He wondered what the hell was soft in a store for a moment before was sent to the ground harder than he'd anticipated the ground to be. He groaned from his spot on the floor.

"Oh my God, you've gotta be kidding me," a familiar voice muffled from somewhere near him. Ean frowned at the ceiling and pushed through the pain to attempt his guess on the person's identity.

"Stephanie…?"

The angered grumble was a yes. Definitely not Stephanie swearing at him.

"What is your deal with running into me, man?"

"It wasn't intentional," the redhead groaned into the ground.

"Shut up and get back onto your feet, weeb."

Oof, low blow from the pink corner! How does the copper corner retort?!

"Do I look like a weeb to anyone considering I can fluently speak Japanese for a reason that's not because I watched too much anime?"

"Yes."

CRITICAL HIT!

Ignoring the blow to his shallow pride, the foreigner peeled himself from the floor, pushing his dilemma away for the moment to reconvene with the pink haired girl. She looked strange when not dressed in her school uniform, but the cream wool sweater matched her pretty well. She rocked the worn black tights and brown skirt as well. It gave a strangely nice contrast to her waist length pink hair.

"What're you doing here?"

"What," she muttered, and Ean noticed her quickly fix her sleeves. He bit his lip but didn't comment on it as he let her continue, "am I not allowed to stop in a shop for candy once in a while?"

He glanced down to the objects in her hand, identifying it as one of the worst types of bubblegum he'd ever had the misfortune of tasting, and decided he'd like to keep living for the day.

"Honestly, I should be asking you that question," she continued, seemingly unaware of the fact that she almost would've been allowed to kill him over a gum dispute. "You don't seem like the type of guy to willingly go outside alone. NEET," she decided to tack onto the end, her blue eyes striking him suspiciously. The redhead, with no knowledge of what that term meant, quietly accepted it, filing it into information for later research because it sounded strangely like an insult.

The fact that she grinned when he didn't retort didn't make him feel much better about himself either…

"Actually," Ean muttered, regaining the girl's attention with both his monotone voice and expression, "I'm out because Shido did something stupid again."

"So the idiot you mentioned when I made you bawl was Itsuka, huh?"

"I didn't _bawl_ ," he shot at her with gritted teeth, his eyelid twitching when he saw the little minx chuckling lordly over him. "Asshat," he grumbled through his jaw, only hearing her laugh louder.

"So what did Itsuka do to you this time?" Stephanie asked as her laughing fit came to and end. Ean's jaw locked as the feeling of jealousy returned when he remembered the two shared a bed while they slept.

"He got a girlfriend and convinced her to live in the same house as us."

She sympathetically shuddered, and even without the half of the story where she was a being from another dimension, he knew she understood his plight.

"So they're…" she trailed off, picking up with making lewd motions with her hands and kissy faces. He wished it would've been that simple.

"You know how when I attempted to introduce myself to you and knocked you over so we landed in an anime position?"

The color draining from her face and the annoyance in her eyes told him _yes._ Yes she did.

"Imagine that, but Shido's little sister decided to up the ante of awkwardness and made it so they kept stumbling into one another either nude or close to it."

Stephanie cringed in disgust and confusion, probably wondering exactly why Kotori was a ball of chaos when it came to her big brother's love life. Ean wondered the same, and maybe what was up with Kotori in general.

"That sounds like hell," the pink haired girl muttered. Ean grinned and agreed himself - or, as he then jokingly stated: "It's Hell Two: Electric Boogaloo."

She only blinked in response and his awkwardness came back with a vengeance. Why would she know about that? Why would he make a reference to something absolutely no one in his age group would recognize?

"Just," he sighed, scratching his cheek, "forget about it."

"Did the advice I give you at least help a bit?"

His pity party came to a close when she seemed to not mind the old reference, steering the conversation to something they could both partake in without one of them looking insane. In fact, this was great!

Teasing time!

"About as much as a brain tumor…" he joked halfheartedly, remembering being shot, the bullet and the wound vanishing, and the chaos that was the arrival of the Dick Chariot. Stephanie took offense, as he believed she should've, and started hitting him. He laughed despite the new soreness in his arm, courtesy of her fists, but most of the mirth died once he noticed the flashes of white beneath her wool sleeves.

"Okay, okay! Sorry for insulting you!"

The pink haired girl socked him once more for good measure. He cracked a grin for her, but now he was worried about her once again. Her quote-unquote 'bruises' should be healed by now. How the hell was he supposed to help her, considering he knew she'd get defensive over it?

He needed a plan. He needed a _good_ plan.

"So… I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

Damn it, why was he talking on _autopilot again?!_

"Yeah, I guess."

Ean groaned before he even had a chance to bypass her excuses. He just sighed as she started walking away, waving over her shoulder as she went to purchase her things. With her bag in hand, she took one step out of the store and glanced back, a smile on her face that almost looked forced.

"I'll see you, Weeb!"

Ean rolled his eyes and waved her off with a bit of a grin on his face. He trailed her pink hair with his eyes, taking note of how she slumped almost exhaustedly when she exited the store.

She noticed, didn't she? She knew he was distracted by her bandages, and took her escape. It's not like he was very secretive about it.

Something more important than his eyes just became his main focus. He turned to the end of the aisle and where they'd crashed into one another minutes ago. He glanced to the direction she was walking from, turned down the aisle, saw what it held, and sighed to himself.

"Steph, why did you come out of an aisle for treating injuries and medicine…?"

The bandages on her arms were still there. She made sure to hide her wrists and arms from him this time. Bruises from falling down the stairs his ass…

Before he left, one last thing caught his attention. A couple of tins sat on one of the shelves, one missing from the group. Reading the label identified them as medicinal salves specifically for cuts. She didn't think he could distract him by hiding the one in her other hand into her pocket while she distracted him with the gum story, did she?

He grabbed one and left for the registers. You never knew when it helped to be prepared for anything.

* * *

Shido stumbled into the living room, face as red as Kotori's hair. His mind kept pulling up the numerous occasions where he and Tohka got caught in awkward situations by the manipulations of Kotori, giving him several eyefuls of… porcelain skin and curves as dangerous as an icy road in Winter.

Lord, living with her was going to be awesome, awkward, and terrible at the same time.

"So… you two shared a bath?"

Shido squealed crazily as the voice cut through the thought and images that had no place being in his brain but he was fine with anyways. He wheeled about to see Ean, feet propped up onto the table, sipping noisily from a cup of coffee. His eyes were so focused on Shido that the boy shuddered in terror at the lazer-like gaze.

There was a small pile of broken porcelain on the floor as well, which Shido became quickly concerned about. Ean caught the gaze and rose an antagonistic eyebrow.

"Dude, you two shouted so loud that you broke the mug I was drinking coffee from earlier."

That… explained the chips of porcelain on the ground- _Tohka's beautiful skin..._ no! Bad!

The redhead pulled a plastic bag out of god knows where and emptied its contents onto the table by his feet. Shido's imagination of…

Shido's _thoughts_ were taken by the items. A small tin of ointment clattered onto the table, as did a large bottle of water. The redhead hefted the liquid into his hand, a strange expression of his face.

"Want a swig? Looks like Tohka's making you pretty thirsty."

Shido's jaw locked as he glared at the redhead, who had a sly grin on his face as he tossed the water bottle to the bluenette. Ean looked stupidly smug about his comedic timing.

"I sprinted the entire way to the supermarket for that joke."

Shido hurled the bottle at the redhead, smacking him in the face.


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm alive, btw. As is this story.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

* * *

He'd been abducted.

Ean didn't know when it had happened. He'd gone to bed early to avoid the double trouble that was Tohka and Tohka's inability to stop getting run into by an extremely flustered Shido, and was now in a forest.

First of all, who the hell kidnapped him?

Second off, there wasn't even a forest _near_ Tengu.

It was dark enough to be almost taunting him. He knew there should be a way out of a forest, but he knew walking in a random direction would probably get him killed faster than the first victim of a horror movie. If he didn't want to get mauled by a bear, he needed to be smart.

So obviously, the smartest thing he could think of doing was screaming at the sky, "WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!"

A surprised squawk came from a tree to his right, and Ean patiently watched as an idiot dropped out of the tree and crashed right onto his face.

"Huh. That actually worked."

Kannazuki peeled his eyeballs from what looked like poison ivy and looked up to the redhead with an eager grin. The foreigner just stared blearily back.

"Are you ready to start stress training," was what finally fell from the man's mouth after what felt like a minute of silence.

"What the hell do you mean stress training?"

"Well," he said, getting up and brushing away the dirt and grass stains from his suit, looking absolutely nonchalant even with the context, "the Commander wanted your training to become more focused on constant survival. She told me to ramp up your challenges to prepare you for the role of a Wizard. I thought it would be best to prepare you to fight in unknown locations and for hours on end!"

Wait, for _hours?!_ He couldn't do that! If Ean could barely manage wind sprints for three minutes, what made anyone think that he and his gangly, muscleless body could last in a fight for hours?

"Didn't Kotori just say to make my training a bit more extensive," he tried, hoping that whatever sick gods out there laughing at him would give him some pity and explain that it was all a joke.

"She did! Hence these!"

The man snapped a gloved finger - you can _do that?!_ \- and a virring sound came from all around him. Ean's eyes instantly snapped to the closest source, identifying a slightly human-like figure get up and stand to face him, comprised of metal and lights.

They had robots?

They wanted him to fight robots?

"You want me to… what?"

A No Pain was jammed into his hands.

"Fight."

Ean glared at the blond, miffed at the fact that he still had that damned smile on his face.

"You do know that this is illegal, right? I could probably get you on some drastic violation of my human ri-"

"Have fun!"

The foreigner blinked at Kannazuki, who happily sped off into the sky. The robots that the blond had ditched began to glow menacingly and gave off angry whirring sounds.

Ean whimpered.

* * *

Shido was desperately cooking away, trying his best to keep Tohka from eating everything he owned. She'd already raided his fridge, but Shido was unprepared to wake up and enter the kitchen to see Tohka holding the refrigerator overhead and consuming anything that fell out of the appliance. She'd looked at him with those bright purple eyes that threatened to eat everything he knew and loved and knew that his wallet would likely never recover.

At least Kotori had the common sense to leave when she accidentally stumbled in on him grilling an entire steak while Tohka consumed an ocean of soup.

The door to the kitchen burst open, and in barged the house's bedraggled redhead, glaring holes into the atmosphere with tired and glassy eyes. He stomped to the table and sat down, denying Shido's unsaid need to confirm the amount of oil and metal shards that coated him. He was drenched, covered, and pissy. He also didn't try and justify his actions when he launched what looked suspiciously like the head of a robot out the window and shoot a middle finger after it.

Shido was surprised that he didn't try to snap Tohka in two when she gave him a bright, happy greeting.

"Good morning! Did you sleep well?"

"S… sure. I slept… _fine._ "

Shido peeked over his shoulder to watch his fellow male growl to himself and wipe the oil away from his face, glaring at it with brown eyes that looked more red than anything. Probably just a trick of the light...

"Totally unrelated question, does anyone know an effective way to murder someone and make it _hurt?_ "

Oh god, what did he mean by that?!

"Why?"

"Oh," he dismissed, a positively unholy smile on his face, "no reason in particular."

Tohka, who probably knew the most about killing in the room, looked at Ean innocently, as if trying to figure out whether or not he was serious.

"Hmmm… okay!"

Shido would've balked, wondering if that meant Ean was actually going to get the advice he'd looked for, but honestly? This was just normal by now.

"Question! How are we going to teach Tohka about society?"

Shido flinched at the shout Ean had let out, a double hit of both anxiety and annoyance. The bluenette hadn't really thought of that particular notion, understandably more focused on surviving without Kotori's misdirections sending him on a one-way trip to hell.

Tohka had no clue about society. If she had, their date would've gone so much better, at least until he was accosted by an erect member riding on a chariot and… that Spirit.

"Do you think we should tutor her?"

It was the best plan that Shido had. She needed to have a high school education, as well as heightened social skills. He needed to find ways for her to understand how the human world worked before she comes close to vaporizing someone. Her language skills were fine, but besides that, his plate was just drowning with how much was on it.

"Uh… where _is_ Tohka?"

Shido jumped and whipped over to see the seat that Tohka had previously sat in, now spinning on a single leg. Both boys watched it clatter to the ground.

"Shido! Have you seen my bike?"

Kotori's voice echoed from outside thanks to the open window, laced with confusion. Ean was still looking at Tohka's discarded chair in befuddlement, although it seemed like, just as Shido had, he'd realized suddenly the insinuations before them.

"YYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Shido sighed and glanced wearily to the outside world, where Tohka tore down the road on Kotori's bike she'd gotten when she was seven, pink and frilly. The plum haired Spirit looked like she was having the time of her life.

Ean merely blinked and swallowed whatever it might've been that he'd say, instead sighing and pulling Tohka's half finished plate of food towards himself, looking at the contents with a crinkle to his nose.

"Is Tohka capable of literally everything," he muttered, distastefully eyeing up the concoction of solids, liquids, and gelatinous foods that all combined on the porcelain, "or is that just me?"

Shido sighed, looking at his newly dented fridge with Tohka's fingerprints now crushed into the sides, and pondered whether or not he want to test Tohka's capabilities of everything.

"Come on. Let's see if we can catch up to her and go to school."

The redhead at the table made a noise of agreement, pushing the demonic concoction of food away and moving to leave the room.

"If she can even remember where the school is…" Ean remarked. Shido sighed.

Painful memories of stress cooking came to mind. Maybe it had been a test when he was a kid; he had been so worried about it that his body just began to do something it knew to be enjoyable. The baked goods he had afterwards were great.

The yelling his mom had unleashed counteracted it. Whenever he was stressed, he would bake and cook.

Right now, he had the stress to make a feast for a God.

* * *

Tohka's valiant steed - Centurion, as it had branded to its side - took her wildly through the city, hitting large bins of silver metal and plowing over divisions of wood protruding from the grass by a few locations of living. The wind blew in her hair and dried her eyes, but it felt great. It was like she was flying again!

She at least understood why Sandalphon wouldn't appear. The woman that had showed up yesterday, Reine Murasame, had told her and the others her hypotheses about what had happened. Most of it went over her head, including what a 'hypotheses' was, but she spoke of something called a Mana Path. Tohka didn't know why, but something inside her felt warm when Ean had stated in a strange tone that they were linked by a… what did he call it? A bond of fate?

She wondered what fate was. Also why Shido blushed and why Kotori had laughed heartily over the comment. She needed to figure out what was happening between the three of them.

All sense of curiosity vanished when something, a small rodent with a large bushy tail, ran out in front of where she was going.

Tohka let out a shaky gasp when she felt her control over her steed fumble as she threw herself to the side to avoid the small animal that had dashed out in front of her. That shakiness turned into her panic when she couldn't solidify herself on her seat like before, the wheels on her vehicle bobbing back and forth beneath her. It took her from the road she was on to a small enclosure, tearing down a dirt path. She ducked beneath branches and swerved around bushes, but realized far too late that she couldn't get control.

Oh no, not a person!

"Watch out watch out _watch ooouuuttt!_ "

Tohka rammed directly into the unsuspecting girl, who let out a shout of surprise and pain as she has hit by a wild bicycle. Both girls hit dirt, groaning in pain as Tohka's ride crashed into and embedded itself into a tree.

"Owiee…"

"Ow…"

Tohka spit the dirt out of her mouth and looked around in horror, eyes zeroing onto the girl wearing the same blazer and skirt as she, facedown and unmoving in the dirt.

"Oh! I'm sorry! Are you okay?! Have I struck down an innocent human only days after they have accepted me?!"

In the midst of Tohka's panic attack, the girl seemed to remember that she was alive, and quickly rushed to make sure Tohka knew that she in fact, _wasn't_ dead, and it really wasn't the Spirit's fault that she'd been run over with a bicycle.

"N-no! I'm okay! Really, perfectly fine over here! Are _you_ okay? It looked like a nasty fall! Should I call an ambulance?!"

"Oh, no, I'm fine! I'm really durable!"

Tohka gave a smile, looking at the girl and suddenly becoming transfixed by the big yellow bows on each side of her head.

"I'm Tohka Yatogami. Nice to meet you!"

"Mikie Okamine," the girl returned, giving her own bright smile. "Are you a student at Raizen too?"

Rice in? What was a rice in? Shido had made rice and curry for her that morning, so she knew what rice was, and she _did_ like it.

"Uh… maybe…?"

Mikie nodded understandingly, and Tohka realized that the little emblem on each of their coats were the same. Was that how she knew to ask about the rice in? Maybe they could go together!

"Hey… um… Tohka? Can we be friends?"

Friends? She liked friends!

"Sure!"

"Yeah, at least if she doesn't end up killing you first."

Both girls jumped at the new voice, and Tohka turned to see Ean fail at dislodging her valiant steed from the tree, giving up on it, and just handing her a bag. Tohka looked curiously into it, seeing a couple books and writing utensils within.

"Oh! Hello senpai," Mikie stated happily, and Ean cringed at the word.

"Don't call me that, Mikie. It's bad enough that you keep making friends because they run into you. Calling me that just makes me never want to go outside."

"Right! Sorry senpai!"

Ean groaned, and Tohka took the chance to get him to talk.

"How did you find me?"

"You left a trail of chaos and mutilated garbage cans behind you. Come on, we've got school."

He waved the two of them along and started down the path that apparently led to school, quiet as Tohka and Mikie happily talked to one another. The walk to what Ean claimed to be Raizen High was quick from where they were, and with a lasting promise to meet up once again, Mikie disconnected from them and rushed off to her own room. Tohka glanced to Ean, who looked back with a small frown on his face.

"How did you and Mikie mee-"

"I tripped into her, alright? I'm kind of bad at meeting people any other way," he said, face turning red. Tohka just smiled at him.

"Can you teach me about how to fit in then? I think I'd like to get to know her and you better."

The redhead's brown eyes looked almost at her soul, and relief came when he smiled in return.

"Sure Tohka. What's mine is yours and all that jazz."

Tohka's smiled brightened a couple thousand degrees, and she followed him right to Shido, who engulfed her in a relieved hug. She hugged him right back.

"Shido, what's a rice in?"

Shido sighed.

* * *

"My name is Tohka Yatogami! It's very nice to meet you!"

Tohka stood proudly before the humans, hands on her hips. Males had smiles and red faces, and women had stars in her eyes and looked her up and down. It made her feel good about herself, despite knowing that they were all going to fear her if she used her powers.

Shido and Ean smiled and grinned at her, and she let out a smile and waved at them, her entire body swaying as she did. It was the only reason she avoided being speared when something shot past her face, and Tohka turned slowly to the side, eyes wide as she saw an instrument of writing cracked into the board she'd written her name upon.

Everyone was quiet when Tohka's eyes snapped to the culprit, the same white haired girl who attacked her when she first met Shido and Ean. The Spirit smirked a bit when she saw the amount of bandages adorning her face and neck, hoping it hurt because of all the strife she caused.

Tohka glared at the Mecha-Mecha girl, and she glared back with the ferocity of the beast that had attacked her that morning. When the tension in the air increased, the white haired girl did something that permanently marked her at the top of Tohka's shit list.

She wrapped her arm around Shido's possessively.

"Oh great," came a mutter from Ean's direction, "they're _rivals._ "

While it was strange not being allowed to eat whenever she wanted, Tohka managed to hold out until lunchtime. At the first chance she had, she snagged the purple box from Shido's outstretched hand, throwing out a quick gratitude like Ean had told her to on the walk to school. She was rewarded by a huge, bright smile on Shido's face that made her all tingly and happy inside, and quickly moved her desk beside his own, and the two of them were joined by their fellow friend.

What Tohka was confused about was the pink haired girl that he dragged along, turning their group of three into… five. Tohka shot a glare at Tobiichi, who had taken the position on Shido's other side, her blue eyes the only expression that Tohka cared to read, and it was one of defiance.

"Tohka, this is my friend, Stephanie," Ean called out, snapping the Spirit from her grueling battle of stares. The pinkette smiled politely and gave a small wave, sitting down and bringing out her own lunch. After getting things situated, she held out a hand.

A friend? She was Ean friend, so did that mean she was her friend as well? He did say 'what's mine is yours,' but did that reach to people and friends too?

"Hey. I'm Stephanie Yaria. Mostly this idiot's friend slash acquaintance because we keep bumping into one another and don't have the ability to go out to the city without meeting in somewhat painful ways."

Okay, so that meant Tohka and Mikie were friends! Had she known that all she needed to do to make friends was to collide painfully with them, she'd be the friendliest person on the planet!

"O-Ow! S-strong grip you've got there!"

Tohka blinked and realized that Stephanie's hand was being crushed by her own, and the Spirit quickly pulled away, letting out a string of apologies. The pinkette didn't look mad though, telling her that it was fine, and she moved to eating her lunch. The five of them, or the four of them and one white haired homewrecker who wouldn't _leave,_ ate silently, exchanging small banter and playful insults. Tohka couldn't really get into it until Ean had explained that it was all in good fun. The way Shido flushed pink and Ean cackled like a madman told her she was doing great.

It wasn't her fault that Shido tried to throttle the redhead for 'teaching Tohka Manwhore.' The Spirit just covered her mouth to not accidentally spit out her food as she laughed.

There was a scent on her hand. Tohka confusedly sniffed at it, realizing that it was akin to the smell coming off of Stephanie. It was like… a flowery smell mixed with an iron scent. She didn't smell like the other people in the room, even the Mecha-Mecha member. She had small bags under her eyes, too. There was coloring on her face that didn't look real, along with the shine in her eyes.

It made Tohka worried.

It stepped away from her mind momentarily, although she'd assuredly find out what was wrong, by Origami licking food off of Shido's cheek.

"Get away from Shido, you homewrecker!"

* * *

Stephanie shot her redheaded friend a look and a grin.

"Did you teach her that word too?"

Ean grinned back.

"Trust me, she'll be swearin' like a sailor after I'm done with her."

* * *

Ryouko fiddled with her pen, waiting tensely for Itsuka to arrive. She'd gotten word from the secretary that he'd entered the building alongside three other people, all teenagers. She could only assume that they were allies of this Ratatoskr group that Itsuka had mentioned, and mentally prepared herself.

Her Wizards knew that she was meeting with someone. Origami had figured out with ease that it would be the elder Itsuka sibling, and fervently tried to get a reason to be in the room. Ryouko had forced her out with the help of Mikie and a few others, but it left the woman with a broken door frame, courtesy of the white haired teen's inhuman grip strength. Even that had barely been enough to stop her.

"Found it!"

That must be her cue. She sat down into her seat and planned out her argument. Innocent people had no need to meet with Spirits.

"The hell happened to the door…?"

Ryouko grimaced. Of course they immediately noticed.

"Miss Kusakabe?"

She made sure to have a professional smile to greet them, just like her father had always told her. Calm and collected; friendly, but she had to make sure that they knew she was in control of the situation.

The boy she'd met, Shido Itsuka, was the first to step in. He greeted her politely and with a wide smile, which she gladly returned. A foreign boy popped in right behind the Asian teen, American features similar to her own giving the Wizard a sense of familiarity. Just behind him was a younger redheaded girl, an innocent smile and white ribbons keeping her twin-tails in place.

Then the fourth person found herself in the room, and Ryouko's brain stopped computing.

Princess was in her room. _Princess_ was in her _room._ _PRINCESS WAS IN HER ROOM._

It took all of her self-control to not panic over the fact that a Spirit she'd been given orders to hunt was currently looking about her office curiously. Was it a power play by Ratatoskr to show they were in control of the situation? They'd decided to stroll in with a girl that could easily wipe them all across the floor in an instant, it couldn't be anything else.

She looked to Itsuka, who was only giving her a polite smile. She wouldn't get anything out of him.

Instead, she looked to the youngest, hoping she could get the information out of someone less prepared to explain their actions. They were more likely to slip.

"Did you _have_ to bring Princess?!" She demanded, her eyes flickering to the girl who was being kept from eating the wax fruit on the counter by the redhead American, who was struggling valiantly and scolding her like a puppy.

The girl laughed, and suddenly the facade of an innocent child vanished. In an instant, she switched the color of her ribbons from white to black, and it felt like she was suddenly staring at a new person.

"Did the people around here all have to be armed?" was her quick retort, smug expression amplified when she pulled out a lollipop and popped it into her mouth, grinning. "I had to walk around this dangerous place and ask for directions from a girl with a Gatling gun!"

"It's the JGSDF. You should've seen Monday. We were transporting missiles."

The deadpan made the foreign boy in the back chuckle, which was then quickly replaced with a pained seething. Ryouko glanced back to Princess, who'd managed to snag a wax pear and tried to cram it into her mouth, but ended up biting down on the foreign boy's fingers instead.

"I have to report her, you know. Innocent people could get hurt if I don't."

"'Could," the younger girl before her stated, and Ryouko instantly knew that the kid was more than meets the eye. No ordinary kid knew the efforts of not wanting to file paperwork, and apparently the complications of not doing so. The redhead just smirked, "not will. Don't you think that it's smarter to not piss off the creatures able to blow apart the world through unknown means?"

Ah, so they were going right to the social complications. Good to know, because they could get it out of the way as quickly as possible and get to the meat of the problem.

"Normally, yes. I'm also the commander around here, so I kind of have to."

"The suffering of paperwork?"

"Yeah."

The girl nodded sympathetically. Ryouko felt a kinship with the kid, bonding over how the constant faxing and signatures drove them insane.

"Ma'am…?" Ryouko glanced back up to Itsuka, who was looking between her and the younger girl confusedly, and the AST Commander quickly remembered that this was supposed to be a serious meeting. "The Spirits, please. How do you feel about them?"

"They're dangerous creatures that have to be dealt with," she parroted, hearing the same thing her supervisors said about every five minutes come out of her mouth. She'd make sure they pay for corrupting her thoughts like they did her free time.

"Have you imagined," he tried again, not getting the answer he wanted, which was a fairly good portrayal of adult life, "even a bit, about how the Spirits might feel?"

"Personally, yes. Professionally? Not once."

The teen looked at her like she'd said something absolutely sacreligious. What had he expected her to say? She was the commander around here; she had to make sure that was defined.

"Guys, can you all step out for a moment?"

The two other teens and Princess all glanced to Itsuka, then politely funneled out of the room, the red haired boy snagging the wax fruit Princess had been chewing on and tossing it back to the bowl. Ryouko followed its arc, making sure to remember which one it was so the eggheads in the science department could analyze the Spirit's DNA.

The second the door clicked closed, the blue haired teen looked back to her, eyes narrowed, and Ryouko knew what would come next.

"We're not going to stop saving Spirits. If the AST wants to persist in trying to stop us and hurt them, then that's your choice. I know Tohka better than anyone, and she'd never hurt someone innocent. Why should she have to fight just to live?!"

Yeeeep. This was expected. Ryouko had to remind herself that she was dealing with children about half her age.

"Her existence is a threat to humanity," she answered professionally, knowing it would do nothing to helpfully impact the scenario despite making sure that Itsuka knew that she was at least following orders.

"And we're trying to stop that! We can make it so Spirits aren't a threat anymore!"

"If it was that easy than why hasn't it happened already," Ryouko demanded of the teenager, who seemed to believe he had all the answers. Those eyes looked just like Origami's, so determined to fulfill his goals that he failed to look around. "If you're really a part of this _Ratatoskr_ , then why have Spacequakes persisted for the past thirty years without halt? What have you done to contribute to protect humanity?"

"This isn't just about humanity," the bluenette seethed, "it's about the Spi-"

"How do you think people will react if they learned that their loved ones were killed because one boy wanted to stop all of the AST's developments?"

It had been a problem that the AST had tried to address in the past. Everyone in the group knew that Spirits were dangerous and wild at times, but if they were to come forth to everyone who lost someone to Spacequakes and explain, then it would be an eventual riot. Creating a catastrophic situation like that was going to ruin not only the merits of the Japanese Governments, any allied governments that knew of the truth, but it would create an opening for anyone who would then abuse said information for their own good.

"They haven't been doing it purposely! Maybe if the AST had stopped hunting them, they'd try harder to not do so."

"Mikie Okamine. You know her?"

She'd come in earlier, screaming happily about how she made a friend. The descriptions of a bubbly girl with long purple hair matched perfectly with those of Princess. Ryouko had almost forbidden her from ever meeting the Spirit again, knowing just how the girl had ended up joining the AST. It was only the fact that Mikie hadn't made the connection that Ryouko stayed silent.

She didn't have the same mercy for Itsuka.

"Princess almost killed her one day. Totally unprovoked. Had Origami not been there, she'd be dead."

Itsuka bit down on whatever words would've come next, looking suitably shaken in his morals. Ryouko looked down at the file she had in her drawer, sighing.

She didn't want to have to show him this.

She did anyways. His eyes widened in horror at the file, his skin turning a sickly pale. It was an understandable reaction to seeing a mutilated building of innocent people, killed by… _that_ Spirit.

"This was done by Nightmare. A Spirit that takes pleasure in killing people, and you think you can keep her from being a threat?"

Ryouko noticed how Itsuka shook very lightly, a slight quiver that made her worry a bit.

"Two days ago, she killed thirteen of our Wizards during our operation that regarded you and Princess. Killed one of my own, a girl that I could easily call something of a daughter, apparently right in front of you. Furthermore, sightings of numerous different Spirits had appeared in her vicinity," she followed, pulling out the mostly empty manilla files from her desk and tossing them to the boy. She didn't even need the information on paper to know that they were much more dangerous than anything they'd ever encountered. The explosion they caused and the full blown fire that engulfed the nearby park was enough, and from what her Wizards had claimed, they'd been _toying_ with the AST.

Also, the alcohol she'd consumed to get the third thing they'd caused out of her head toyed with her.

"Do you want to know what could happen if people with unjust intentions get their hands on such powerful creatures? You know what terrorist attacks are, Itsuka. Imagine those, but instead making a world engulfed in flames or drenched in the blood of innocents. I cannot say for the Wizards under my command, but I'm in the AST because I want what's best for my species. I wanted to humor you today because in that moment during the Princess operation, your conviction was just as great as mine."

He was quiet, and Itsuka just sighed miserably and closed the file in his hands, placing it back onto the desk.

"I'm sorry for wasting your time, ma'am."

"My apologies Itsuka. It seems we've become enemies."

He made a meager sound of agreement, letting Ryouko lead him to the doorway. They stepped out into the hallway, taking in his expression to his friends that waited eagerly nearby essentially said he'd failed in his efforts, and took pity on him.

"Tell you what. _Maybe_ my account of what we talked about in our meeting got lost in transit. I probably wasn't going to do it anyways."

He looked back up at her, eyes wide and hopeful. It felt exactly like she was looking at a happy little dog.

"Kid, I don't want to fight you on everything. Hell, if your group produces results, I'd be on the bandwagon faster than you can blink. It's just…"

The Wizard sighed to herself, remembering that day those five years ago.

"I lost my sister to a Spirit. I know that it wasn't on purpose because that Spirit had been trying to protect her, but lost control and went on a rampage. I don't want anyone else to lose family. It's been five years since then."

Itsuka looked sympathetic to the loss of family, putting a light hand on her shoulder.

"The Tengu Fire?"

The younger girl beside Itsuka stiffened, her red eyes looking up to him worriedly.

"Yeah," Ryouko relinquished, the memories of that day painful to remember.

"I'm sorry," Itsuka said, like he could've done anything to change the events that happened. A lot of people had lost someone in the chaos of that day, and a memory of coming across a grieving and livid younger Origami popped into her head.

"Just head home, kid. I guess we'll be seeing each other again, huh?"

He let a quiet agreement and started down the hallway, but the foreign boy hung back, looking at her with something indecipherable in his eyes.

She recognized him now. He was the Wizard who assisted Princess on their hit after Raizen High was destroyed. He'd impressed them all, because by managing to distract as many Wizards as possible with his erratic flight patterns and refusing to actually wound anyone, it was the first operation they'd had in a while that they'd experienced extremely low casualties. He'd even taken a bullet for Princess and continued his efforts.

That was the kind of talent they needed on the AST. Someone who could do their best to protect others no matter the odds. That's why Ryouko walked right up to him and said her view.

"Join the AST."

"No."

Ryouko only sighed and accepted it.

"Sorry, Kusakabe-san, but I've already been guilt-tripped into tagging along with them. Besides," he continued, a grin breaking through his seemingly normal façade, "would you really want someone as pusillanimous as me on the AST?"

Ryouko stopped, deciphered what he'd said in a little world of her own, oblivious to the sudden actions of the boy, and wondered why in the hell he'd call himself timid when he'd only done something good.

"Better question that doesn't out me as the runt of our group: do you think Princess wouldn't rip the AST apart to get me back?"

Her eyes snapped back up to his, registering the wax fruit coated in Princess' spit, and he smiled back.

Oh.

Oh, so _he_ was the smart one.

"Sorry, but I can't let that idiot ruin everything," he grinned, tossing the apple and catching it in an open hand, "and after he'd already said Princess' name, I don't really think I can trust the JGSDF with that much information on my friend."

And with that, he left, and Ryouko wondered if they were right or not to think that Spirits weren't the real enemy.


	10. Chapter 10

**I know it's been a while, but I've rewritten this about seven times, so take it before my consciousness decides that I need death for failing to give this story the attention it deserves.**

 **Also, as it's been misinterpreted, the Wizard that Kurumi killed was just an ordinary Wizard. _That_ one... she's got something else in store for her.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

* * *

Why did it always rain on the days she looked forward to?

Stephanie sighed at the sky through her clear umbrella, angrily judging the clouds. She just shook her head and continued her walk to school, bag in her hand uncomfortably banging against her bruised knee. It affected her gait, giving the pinkette a small and extremely noticeable limp. She wasn't going to think of its origin. Not when she was going somewhere she felt safe.

The patter of rain against the umbrella overhead gave her white noise to listen to. The smell of the falling sky allowed her to forget her troubles, just for a moment, and she wondered what chaos the day would bring. Maybe Tohka and Tobiichi would end up in another scuffle over Shido's affections. It'd be fun to watch it alongside Ean, who would no doubt tease Shido to hell and back.

Maybe she could try baking. She could try it out with her friends an-

Stephanie bit her lip to drag herself back to reality. She wasn't supposed to be getting attached to them. They were going to leave her too. It was inevitable. It always happened.

But she _enjoyed_ this one. It was nice to just be normal; no longer someone that knew a fight better than how to socialize. To rely on someone else to take care of her instead of licking her wounds alone. No longer called a delinquent, but instead a friend.

She rubbed the bruises that adorned her arms, glad that it was raining outside so she could cover them with her blazer in case the bandages were compromised. She'd find a way to change for gym class too without freaking everyone out. She was good at that kind of stuff.

Even so, Steph walked alone. She made sure she'd found the most convoluted path to school so she wouldn't be seen by her good old _caretaker_ , even though she was late because she'd held her up already. If the bitch found out she made friends…. well, she wouldn't have friends anymore. Simple as that. It happened too many times before to coincidence. She couldn't drag Ean, Shido, Tohka, and… she guessed Origami into that situation.

Speaking of routes, her's had just dragged her to Okami Shrine, the place she'd always played around as a kid. It had been so long since she'd last been; probably since she'd last seen her mother. She glanced into the shrine grounds. Maybe her wish would still be hanging...

Stephanie couldn't see the rack of wooden plaques from her vantage point, but she _did_ see someone. It was a kid. A little girl in a bright green rabbit raincoat was the only sign of movement, with her jumping and splashing into the larger puddles that the rain had caused. The teenager watched for only a moment, and yet felt envious of that childhood innocence.

Well, that envy turned to pity when the girl jumped weird.

She ate dirt, to put it simply. Those bright blue eyes went wide and sad within seconds of removing her face from the puddle, filling instantly with so many tears that they seemed to dwarf the rain.

Stephanie sighed and wandered over, listening to the girl begin to lightly sob, trying so desperately to keep the tears back and failing all the same, all over a skinned knee.

"You alright, kid?"

The blues irises snapped up to her, and it felt like someone was playing her heartstrings like a harp. The girl looked at her with such wide and scared eyes that Stephanie felt like she had done something wrong. It was only by reminding herself that she wasn't trying to hurt anyone that she didn't leave automatically.

Where was this kid's family? Why was she out in this weather all alone, with no one around to watch out for her scrapes and bruises?

"Does that hurt?" Stephanie lightly asked, keeping a sympathetic smile on her face when she was given a slight nod in return, despite the shaking. Whether that was from the rain or maybe even fear, the teen didn't mind. Stephanie popped open her school bag, pushing through the classroom materials and gauze and bandages, finding just what she needed. Pulling out the tiny bandage, she gave a smile to the blue haired girl, then looked down to the wound.

The suddenly healed, completely gone wound that made the teen wonder if the kid had even skinned her knee in the first place, the only reminder of it a little bit of dirt on the skin.

Huh.

"What's your name?"

She stowed the bandage back in her bag, waiting for the girl to untie her tongue, keeping fairly still, then finding herself guilty that she was treating an innocent girl like she was a wild animal.

"Y-Yoshin-no…"

God, that stutter was _adorable_.

"Well Yoshino, mind telling me what you're doing out here all by your lonesome?"

Maybe that was a bit creepy, because the girl didn't look like she could bring herself to talk. Instead, the girl held up her rabbit toy.

" _People scare her, of course! What, do you think we like to be out here in this freezing cold rain?!_ "

Stephanie balked. She'd seen ventriloquists before - that awful, _awful_ school talent show still gave her nightmares - but Yoshino was on a whole new level. Kid had skill, enough said.

But the sass was unpredicted. A surprise, sure, but considering her friends, a welcome one.

"Why do people scare you? I mean, some are jerks," she muttered, thinking of those eyes and that scar that haunted her everyday and feeling particularly disgusted when it made her bruises ache at the memory, "but not all of them are bad," she continued, the feeling lifting when she thought of the friends that awaited her at school, greeting her with bright smiles and the best intentions, along with a little playful sarcasm. Yoshino tearfully looked up at her, a little bit of red in her cheeks.

" _They call poor little Yoshino here a monster! And a Hermit! What the heck even is a hermit?!_ "

Steph blinked. She could've sworn she heard that name before… and now that she looked closer, Yoshino seemed kind of familiar. She'd never seen the girl, but she felt like she'd been described somewhere.

She shook those thoughts away. She was a kid. Home life and Yoshino didn't need to mix.

"What else do these mean people do?"

" _They chase her! They call her names and insults, and they always wear those scary clothes and hold weird things! Who would ever want to hurt this adorable face_ ," the puppet demanded, grabbing Yoshino by the cheeks, to her slight displeasure.

"That's just mean," Stephanie agreed. "Do you know why they'd do something like that?"

There was a short pause, the puppet and her owner looking at one another, and it made Stephanie wonder if there was more to the story than she'd heard.

" _Not a clue! We just like to wander and then they show up! It's not our faults we're around here!_ "

"No, it's not. We rarely get to make decisions for ourselves nowadays, huh?"

Damned society...

" _You know, you're not too bad! What's your name, Pinkie?_ "

The rabbit had found its way right into her face. Steph smiled in return.

"Stephanie. Stephanie Yaria. It's nice to meet you two," she stated, the statement becoming more of a question when she realized she never learned the puppet's name.

" _I am the great Yoshinon!_ "

"Well, Yoshino, Yoshinon, if you like me, you might like some of my friends too. Do you want to meet them? Maybe get out of this cold rain, too," she inquired, holding up and hand and gesturing as water drizzled into it.

" _Depends if they're not like those meanies who terrify Yoshino!_ "

Oof. Poor Origami. She'd horrify any child with her strange actions. Just yesterday, she'd tried to force feed Shido like she was a bird, almost flayed Tonomachi, and generally threatened Tohka with disembowelment.

"Well, if those mean people ever come back around, just trust that big sister Stephanie will be there to keep you save, alright Yoshi-woah!"

Yoshino swamped her in a tight hug, and Stephanie didn't really know what to do; confusedly patting her head.

It was then Stephanie realized that the constant cold of rainfall had faded, and she looked up to realize that the rain had stopped.

She hesitated. She couldn't just bring a kid to school with her. She was already the weird girl in class; if she brought a child, she'd practically be deemed as a complete degenerate by her classmates.

Then again, Tama-Chan-Sensei _did_ owe her a favor for helping her with grading last week. She could make them not care about it. Besides, Yoshino was adorable enough that she could see a good chunk of them not caring too much.

She ended up walking with the girl, holding her hand and smiling as she did. Yoshino jumped in every puddle she saw, Yoshinon cackling loudly, and Stephanie would be hard pressed to deny the fact that she'd joined in on the fun. In fact, she'd smiled wider than she had in quite some time, so much that even as she approached Raizen High, two people by the School gates, she never stopped...

Oh _fuck._

She recognized that petite little shit. Her dumb silver hair, black headband, and fur lined jacket was like an annoying beacon of bitchiness.

Ashley Sinclair had found her way to Raizen, and she was tormenting her teacher's niece, Mikie. A dark thought worked into Stephanie's brain: there'd been what people called a terrorist attack earlier that week, and just suddenly Ashley decided to suddenly show up at Raizen. Fuck, she really wished she'd never met her in the first place. She was somewhat part of the reason of her home life anyways.

Did that mean Cecile and Leonora were going to show their ugly mugs too…?

"Senpai!" Mikie called out when Steph came closer to the school, Yoshino still holding her hand, Yoshinon quiet as well.

"Sen… well hello, _Stephie_ ," Ashley grinned slyly, using the nickname that made Steph want to snap her own neck, "surprising to know _you're_ here too! It's like all of my friends are here!"

"We're not friends, you tiny, flat-chested midget," Stephanie quickly retorted, feeling Yoshino begin to shake. Steph moved in front of the girl, blocking her away from Ashley's infectious, incurable disease of _asshole._ Said asshole also picked up on the movement, her eyes shooting to the bluenette behind the older girl.

"Who's the brat?"

Yoshino cowered further behind her, and Steph would've snarled had she and Mikie not been around.

"Someone you're not going to talk about to anyone, write, record, or even remember if you know what's good for you."

"Do you have permission," she asked, a ruthless smile on her face. Mikie looked confusedly between the two, trying to figure out how they knew each other, and Stephanie hoped what she said next would deter her from such.

"I'm going to fucking spear your head on my door," was Steph's retort, having covered Yoshino's ears to protect her from the words of teenagers. She pulled her hands from the younger girl, her nails digging into her palms.

"Trust me, _Stephie_ ," Ashley muttered, the grin gone, replaced by a look she could only classify as vengeance, "I'm gonna have fun punching holes into your caretaker. She's gonna be covered in more than just that mark on her eye."

"Go ahead," the pinkette spat right back. Ashley grinned, a hint of sadism in it, and it made her shudder. Stephanie clamped down harder on her palm, leading Yoshino to the entrance before the brat could say anything more. No thinking of her, or anyone she mentioned. Just…

Think of Ean. Think of that idiot, and what he and his friends might get up to. Think of how Tohka and Origami will fight against one another for Shido's affection.

Don't think of _anything_ or _anyone_ else.

Nor the repercussions of her actions.

* * *

"I still can't believe you name-dropped Tohka to the commander of the AST. What're you, an idiot?"

Ean glared at Shido, who looked like his attempts to suffocate himself in his bento were working. The redhead wouldn't allow such a thing to happen, snagging the lunch away from the weight of Shido's face and holding it out of the bluenette's reach when he feebly tried to get it back.

"Seriously, I'm mad at you. Do you think _anything_ through?"

"I get it, alright?"

The muffled sound of face now against table just made the foreigner sigh and put the lunch back, where it was pulled into the suffocating embrace. He had no doubt that by the looks Origami had shot them before being dragged away by Mikie, the patron saint of denying stalkers, the lunch would be stolen and used to make a cast of Shido's face at some time.

Ean probably wouldn't stop her. Oh, he could try, as he'd be expected to because just letting it happen would be catastrophic in general. The problem would be that Origami would probably kill him for interfering. She'd tried to flay Tonomachi for getting between Shido and herself a day prior, which was also the day she tried to mouth feed Shido her lunch because he wasn't eating.

Freak.

"Come on, it's been a week. Just leave it be," Tohka tried to justify.

"No. I won't leave it be because he'd dumb and should feel dumb. Also, as the local asshole, it is my job to be a general nuisance to him in every way possible. So stop suffocating yourself in your bento," he concluded, glaring at the bluenette. Tohka at least had mercy for him, smiling warmly enough that the glow caught Shido's attention and made at least three people go blind.

"Shido, it's fine. Ean may think you made a mistake. Maybe you did," she said, a pitiful smile on her face when Shido pushed his face further into the food, "but that's okay. I still trust you, Shido. I know that when I'm around you, I'm the safest I'll ever be. So please, don't beat yourself up over this."

Ah, beautiful. So so, heartwarming.

"I'm gonna vomit," Ean grumbled. "Look. As long as you make up for your mistakes, I'll overlook this. But you've gotta take this seriously. You made your choice, now stick by it."

"But… what if the choice is wrong?"

The foreigner frowned.

"This is because what Kusakabe said, isn't it?"

The miserable silence from Shido was all it took to piss him off. Where was the dedication to his choices? He understood that this was an extremely delicate situation, what with the fate of possibly millions of lives hanging in the balance, all dictated by a date and a kiss, but if he couldn't get himself sorted out, how would he with everyone else's issues?

"Ignore her. She fed you her life story, but why do you care? Could you have saved her sister back then? An eleven year old chasing after a Spirit while the world burns around him?"

"No, I don't think I could have," he stated, as if he felt he should've done something. Ean actually had to keep from slugging Shido.

"Then stop fucking worrying about it!"

Ean had slammed down on the desk, standing over the bluenette, trying to surprise him. It worked. Shido had jumped like a deer in headlights, looking up with what might have been fear in his eyes.

The foreigner swept his eyes around the room. People were looking at him in shock. He practically growled at their expressions.

"WHAT?!"

They jumped and wisely looked away. He seethed and slumped back into his seat, glancing over to Tohka.

She looked hurt. She looked uncomfortable to even be near them.

"Shido… do… you regret bringing me into your life?"

He snapped his chopsticks in half. Shit. _Shiiit_.

Shido looked to the innocent Spirit, worry in his eyes.

"No. Never. I'd do it a billion more times and then a billion after that to give you the life you deserve. The same for every Spirit."

"Then I feel like everything will be fine," she smiled. The glow that came off of her made the three blinded in the room miraculously regain their sight and then lose it all over again.

"I've lost my appetite," Ean grumbled, his hunger satiated by the purity of the Spirit. Tohka's stomach growled with unholy volume.

"Can I…?"

Ean pushed the lunch in her direction, watching as her jaw unhinged like a snake and she consumed the food instantaneously. He brought up a hand to prevent his face from being part of the splash zone, and in doing so noticed the approaching pinkette that had been missing from their table. He grinned, knowing that the serious talk was thankfully dead.

"Yo."

Her blue eyes sharpened at him.

Ean choked on whatever would've come next. Stephanie looked _pissed_. Hell, he wondered what he'd done wrong, because the last time he saw that face, he'd been slapped so hard he bled.

He doubted that would be the case today, considering the kid that was clinging to her hand in a bright green rabbit raincoat, looking around the classroom with stars in her eyes. He quickly glanced to the girl's feet, where she had the indoor shoes dignifying her as a visitor for the day, and looked to Miss Okamine, who caught the glance and smiled warmly.

"Stephanie," Tohka gushed when she saw the younger girl, "who is this?! Ooh! She's so cute!"

"Better question," Ean rebuked, "whose kid did you steal off of the street? She looks _very_ out of place."

Stephanie glared, but seemed to ignore the jab. Instead, the pissy look slid off of her face as she looked to the younger girl, an encouraging smile present for the raincoat wearing girl.

"Yoshino, you wanna introduce yourself?"

He watched the girl.

" _Well, hellloooo!_ "

And promptly felt his eyes pop out of his head when the toy on her hand started flopping around like it was having a seizure, a voice that sounded like Yoshino was imitating a male voice that still sounded slightly feminine.

"I'm tripping," he muttered to Shido, jabbing a thumb in the puppet's direction, "the rabbit toy is talking."

Shido grinned.

" _I am Yoshinon. My beautifully adorable friend here is Yoshino, and know that if you do anything to her, you will answer to me!_ "

It was some seriously impressive ventriloquism. Maybe too impressive, because Tohka snatched up the toy with stars in her eyes, spinning like a top.

"WOAAAH! That's amazing! How are you talking so well, mister Yoshinon?! I didn't know animals could do that! I need to apologize to the rodent I almost killed!"

She jammed the doll to her chest, mumbling "Mister Squeakers," which he could only assume was the squirrel he watched her almost annihilate, and was dragged from his train of thought by Shido tapping him on the shoulder.

"H-hey," Tohka asked. "Mister Yoshinon?"

The bluenette had confusion across his face, pointing up at the foreigner. Ean quickly looked himself up and down, understanding what the confusion was for. The fog that appeared in rhythm with his breathing stood out like a sore thumb.

"Why isn't he talking?"

Why was it suddenly so cold that he could see his own breath? The boys shared a confused look, instantly running over the events that had transpired in their head, then came to an astute understanding about what Yoshino possibly was.

"P...please… give Y-Yoshinon…" the girl in question stuttered. Shido had already managed to coax Yoshinon from Tohka's hands, explaining that it was special while Ean looked to his phone, having converted the files on all known Spirits to his phone, scanning through them.

Hermit. Yoshino was possibly Hermit. How did Stephanie come across Hermit? If Yoshino really was Hermit, why wasn't she… well, Spiriting?

"Do we…?" He started, looking to the bluenette.

"Later," Shido stated, looking at Stephanie, who was mid-rubbing her temples.

"Stephanie," he heard Tohka ask quietly, "is everything alright? You look… not happy."

"I'll be fine, Tohka. Just… had a bad morning."

Tohka moved to distract Stephanie, not knowing she'd immediately helped the boys swap information.

"Hermit?"

Ean nodded quickly, handing Shido the phone and letting him look at the information. He scanned it diligently, biting a nail, and looked hesitant to stop even when the bell rang and Miss Okamine started to usher people out for gym, saying something about their class meeting with a first year class for a game of soccer, as the rain had miraculously stopped.

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions," he finally stated. "We might be completely wrong and it's all a coincidence. Let's be subtle."

"That kid… do you really think she's a Spirit? It could be just chance."

Shido nodded, analytical eyes scanning over the younger and thankfully distracted girl. He nodded with finality. Ean smirked.

"This is going to be miserable for you."

"Why?"

"I'm going to make _so_ many lolicon jokes."

Shido turned a beautiful shade of neon pink.

* * *

Kannazuki watched the Commander. That was his daily routine, never interrupted even by the most dire of situations.

He watched her movements. He watched her expressions. He watched that _supple_ skin.

And more recently, he watched her _confusion._

Kyouhei Kannazuki knew he wasn't the smartest of people. He was good with tactics, but people were… not so much. It was one of the reasons he'd left the AST in the past; he couldn't understand what drove them to fight so hard. He, as AST Captain, couldn't understand anyone beneath him, so he looked for someone who did.

Enter Ratatoskr, the Fraxinus, and the eight year old Commander who had unknowingly given him everything he desired. He started as a meager intern, and she saw and understood him for what he was.

A lolicon. She saw the lolicon and understood what that meant.

She couldn't even get him out of her life because it wasn't in her ability to do so. So, he'd stuck around, becoming more and more attached to the only person he'd ever met to understand how he worked.

So, watching the composed Commander look at everything with confusion… _irked_ him.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something," Kotori muttered, looking over the screens. It made Kannazuki frown and think of her schedule. Most of it was habitual, minus things such as the AST meeting, but that had been taken care of at the soonest occasion, even if the results were less than satisfactory. Most of the time, a feeling or a whim had some basis of truth to them, no matter how small… so what was Kotori forgetting?

"Commander, mind stepping out with me for a moment?"

Kannazuki heard Reine's tone. He heard the concern, and more so, the suspicion in her voice.

It was that reason he eavesdropped when they stepped into the hall, his foot keeping the door from shutting and his ears strained to hear their voices.

"Damn! Reine, I forgot about Shido's meeting with that AST bitch!"

"Kotori, you were _there._ You wrote a report about it. You specifically said Kusakabe had lost a sister on the day of the Tengu Fire."

Kannazuki bit his lip in worry. She'd ranted about something Shido had done for a while and then filed paperwork; he remembered it perfectly because in that time she'd gifted him two kicks with some _oomph_ to them.

"I… I did?"

The innocent tone of voice made it clear that she truly didn't remember. Kannazuki could tell such with particular ease. It was like Kotori had truly been surprised to know she'd done such.

" _Yes_. You and Ean ragged on Shido for name-dropping Tohka. He has continued to do so," Reine continued, making the Commander grumble to herself.

"I… don't remember that happening. Everything's just a haze."

"Kotori, have the voices in your head stopped?"

Voices? The Commander was hearing voices in her head?

"Yes, they have."

The thankfulness that should've been there when hearing that whatever was wrong no longer seemed to be an issue was nowhere to be found, instead replaced with concern over the fact that it was a problem in the first place. Auditory hallucinations were normally associated with schizophrenia, and if the Commander was losing touch with reality, she'd be a liability to their efforts in saving Spirits.

"How?"

The question made him pause. Reine knew what Kotori was undergoing, undoubtedly the reason why she wanted to talk. She knew about the voices, and as the head medical analyst, she likely knew that voices in one's head didn't just stop.

"I've been…"

"Kotori, you haven't been using your Angel, have you?"

Horror. Absolute horror coursed through his veins. She was using her Angel?! Was she insane?!

Kotori was killing herself by using her Angel. Something was so wrong with her that she willingly resorted to using something she was practically cursed with.

"We're undergoing a physical," came Reine's desperate voice. "Now."

* * *

"This is hell… this is hell on earth."

Yoshino sat beside the soccer field, nodding silently to the words uttered from Mikie's pale form. The large hexagonal marks that decorated her face painted a happy picture of how she was allowed to say that. Yoshino had witnessed it with her very own eyes. The ball had been kicked with enough power to make a Spacequake seem meager, and it looked like it seeked the girl out.

The purple haired girl, Tohka, had apologized profusely for knocking the girl out. It didn't mean that she was more careful, because the cold eyed, white haired girl continued to egg her on. It also hadn't stopped her, as the redheaded boy that didn't look like the others had said, from 'Committing War Crimes.'

"Oh god, Tohka please no!"

She counted the times that the ball cracked against the redhead's face. One became two, then three.

Then four.

Five.

Oh, the sixth looked painful.

" _Aim for his balls!_ "

"Wha…?! No! Yoshinon!"

"Huh?! Wait! No! Tohka, don't you fu-!"

The distinct sound of glass shattering rang out when Tohka had skimmed the ball, had been unable to stop herself, and connected superhuman strength with the boy's groin. The scream he let out was about ten octaves higher than he'd previously shouted at, and to say he was sent into the air would be an understatement.

"W-W-WHY?! WHY THE N-NADS?!"

On the next kick, Tohka missed the ball, and her foot impacted with the skull of a boy that Stephanie had described as a "no-good vagabond." Yoshino cringed as he literally ate dirt.

Speaking of, Stephanie was hiding dutifully behind her blue haired friend, egging Tohka to "KICK AWAY FROM US!"

"You're only further cementing my superiority over you," the white haired girl stated.

"DAMN YOU ORIGAMI TOBIICHI! I'LL SHOW YOU THE REAL POWER I POSSESS!"

"I should probably go save them," Mikie mumbled, rushing back onto the field. Yoshinon cheered for her to go kick butt, but the raucous encouragement was stamped out when the ball pinged off of several people and then swept the poor girl off of her feet. Yoshino cringed at the sight. Yoshinon barked with laughter.

"Yoshinon… it's not _that_ funny…"

"Hey there. Talking to your stupid toy?"

Yoshino flinched at the voice, and shook when the owner of said voice sank onto the bleacher, right beside her. Yoshino immediately tried to make room, make any kind of distance to breathe, but an arm was thrown over her shoulder and kept her from trying to escape.

Ashley just grinned.

" _Leave Yoshino alone, you petite brat!_ " cried Yoshinon on her hand. Ashley looked at Yoshinon for a second, and by the next, her friend had been ripped away and tossed over the fence. The Spirit wanted to run to grab her, make sure Yoshinon was okay, but was forced back into the seat by the Wizard.

"Oh, come on. I just got here, you Hermit," she grinned, and Yoshino whimpered in return.

"B-big si-"

The hand that dangled over her shoulder lunges like a snake, light on her neck, but still there. Tears that had already been forming streamed silently down her cheeks.

"Ah. No can do. You getting Stephie's attention is going to end horribly for all of us. Besides, Stephie won't be able to even stop me. Her _caretaker_ wants all of the glory for slaying me."

Zadkiel would work. But… all of the people. Big sis Stephanie. She didn't want to hurt them.

"I've got to admit," Ashley lamented, dragging the struggling girl closer and closer, "it wasn't my intention to deal with a Spirit today. I was actually looking for Wizards to kill."

She looked at Yoshino, the grin much more sadistic than it had just been, then stuck out a tongue like that would make everything better.

"Some time with, of course."

It made Yoshino whimper again, this time louder. She hoped it would get someone's attention, so they'd come and save her.

No help came.

"Tell you what," Ashley said, leaning closer with the hold on Yoshino getting tighter around her neck, "run fast and run hard. Give me something to do, and you might see tomorrow."

Yoshinon. She just needed…

Ashley raised an eyebrow.

Yoshino couldn't keep away the tears as she ran as hard as she could, Ashley's laughing behind her making her fear for everything she ever cared about.

It began to rain.


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm back, take this away, I hate myself, enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

* * *

"How're the gonads?"

Stephanie grinned as Ean whimpered. The kick he'd taken straight to the groin had been astronomical, to say the least. Had he been the _right_ ball, they'd probably have won the game. Alas, the only thing that went into the goal was a teenager that would likely never have children.

"I'm gonna piss blood," he squeaked in response. Steph roared with laughter and wiped the sweat from her face, helping his friend up from his assumed fetal position. Shido, on his other side, cringed in sympathy, while Tonomachi sent his regards to escape school for the rest of the day. The rain that kicked up had cut everything short, and their class was given the rest of the day off, teachers knowing better than to piss off a bunch of wet teenagers.

Personally, she was happy because it meant Yoshino wouldn't have to sit awkwardly beside her for the rest of her classes, and she could figure out more of the mysterious tyke.

Speaking of...

"Yoshino?"

She looked around, her friend's pain overshadowed by the missing girl. She'd been sitting on the bench during the game, cheering them on with Yoshinon. And now, nothing.

She knew that she'd kind of abducted her, but something just pushed her to find the kid. She'd hoped that in the presence of Steph's personal safe haven, Yoshino would be relaxed too.

Apparently, she was horribly wrong.

"Yoshino?!"

She was about ready to dash into the pouring rain when two hands caught her by the arms, realizing she was still in the presence of Ean and Shido, the duo looking on with serious eyes.

"We'll find her," Ean said confidently before looking up to Shido, "Go keep Tohka from murdering Origami for that attempted kiss she went for during the game."

Shido nodded, disclosing a quick "if you need help, ask," and dashing off for Tohka. Ean's recovery from his busted nuts came just in time to search around the field, but after a few minutes of searching, Steph's persistence and concern disclosed the location of a young girl, yet the exact opposite of who she wanted to see.

Standing with a sneer on her face, Ashley watched them. Steph's search for the missing girl became a lust for blood at the sight of the toy balled up in the short bitch's hand, two floppy ears threaded through her fingertips.

"What did you do to her?!"

"Oh, little old me?" Ashley grinned maliciously, pulling Yoshinon behind her back. Steph bit at the inside of her cheek, the pain reminding her that throwing down with the midget here and now would get bloody very fast, not that the crotch goblin's smirk helped any. "I did nothing. And to who?"

"Maybe she means the owner of the puppet you're trying to sneak behind your back," Ean said, coming to the rescue and using his taller height to reach behind Ashley and grab Yoshinon, ignoring the shorter girl's desperate attempts to push him away. The foreigner tossed Yoshinon to Stephanie with a cold expression, glaring at Ashley.

"You're trying to steal from a kid? Get out of here, brat."

"You think you can order me around?!"

Ashley puffed up her chest, and her eyes narrowed. Steph almost recoiled, having seen eyes like that too many times in her life. They promised bloodshed and begs for forgiveness to be made. Hell, the pinkette almost pulled Ean away forcibly.

He was having _none_ of it.

The two second years walked away from the angry rattling trash can, ignoring the flailing legs that came out of the top. She'd have laughed at the sight of her friend picking up a Wizard as easily as picking up a teddy bear and slam dunking her into the trash had she not been so mortified by what Ashley could've done to Yoshino.

The pinkette looked worriedly at Yoshinon. The puppet was rain soaked and a bit dirtied from mud, fraying at the edges from wear. Damn it, this was why she didn't bring people into her life. It only made things worse.

"She's going to want that back, you know."

Stephanie glared at Ean, his brown eyes looking at the doll.

"No way in hell am I giving Yoshinon back to that little shi-"

"The other kid," he said calmly, holding up a hand, "chill."

She choked back her words. He was right, of course. She shouldn't be jumping to conclusions, but with how on edge she was right now, she couldn't care less. She had a kid to find in a city with about two hundred and fifty thousand in population in pouring rain, not to mention the problem of Ashley's… cohorts.

She looked up to her friend, cynical brown eyes adorned with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. He met her straight face with a confident grin.

"How about we bring it directly to her? She can't have gotten too far."

"You'd help like that?"

It shouldn't have shocked her, but help in her life normally wasn't _help._ But Doofus-Maximus over here… he actually cared. It was strange. Foreign, almost.

"You care about that kid. She made you smile like the sun came out. Hell yeah I'll help. I can bribe Shido and Tohka to as well; Shido with blackmail his sister gave me, Tohka with food."

She smiled at the thought. It shouldn't take too long now.

* * *

Hours.

Three hours of looking for a girl in a bright green rabbit raincoat, and they'd gotten nothing. Jack shit. They saw more actual rabbits than they did raincoats. If he and Shido thought correctly, Ean supposed the kid would've become lost by now. Spirits didn't stick around for long after conflict; Tohka's disappearances after the two failed encounters with her being prime evidence of such.

It was with that thought in mind that Ean turned over to Stephanie, who'd been about ready to scale fire escapes to look on rooftops before he pointed out that they were both too short to reach, and said something that wasn't Yoshino's name.

"Steph… maybe we should be done for now."

"What? No! She's out there somewhere! Scared! Alone!"

"And wearing a raincoat," he pointed out in return, "meanwhile, we're in school uniforms, the rain's getting worse, and we don't know for sure if Ashley even threatened her. For all we know, the brat noticed Yoshino dropped her puppet and tried to take it for herself."

"You don't understand," Stephanie blithely shot back, as if she'd been desperate to be on the same wavelength as him in the moment, "you'd never understand."

"Try me," he remarked, thinking of all the shit he'd been through the past month and a half. Spirits, government agencies, AST, strange dreams, _getting shot_ and said bullet vanishing. To think he couldn't understand the complexities of a shrimpy bitch and a rabbit raincoat was laughable.

"Ashley hunts people."

Ean choked. His eyes zeroed in incredulously on Stephanie's expression, and was mortified to realize she was telling him the truth.

Hunts…? What the hell? Like… like _Spirits?_ There was the suspicion that Yoshino was a Spirit, so it wouldn't be too wildly out of place to assume Ashley was a Wizard hunting her down. But how would Steph know that Ashley hunts like that?

"She takes pride in finding strong strong opponents and taking them down, and it's all for fun. She… she wants Yoshino for… I think the same reason."

He looked at her, pushing all preconceived notions of his friend away for just this moment. Most Wizards were female, but that didn't mean she was one. She was easily agitated, and to be honest, a little bipolar. She had a pretty big bruise on her knee and the quote-unquote 'bruises' on her wrists, and would get violent if you tried to figure out where they were from. She took the first chance to escape from subjects about her lifestyle, and he knew for certain that she was good at patching wounds from the day she'd gone nuts on his face.

So either her home life fucking _sucked_ , she was depressed and self-harming, or a Wizard. He didn't know which of the three he'd prefer.

"How… how do you know this?"

Her blue eyes snapped away, and it might as well have been an admission of guilt. Steph could seriously be a Wizard. It made him ball his hands into fists in his pockets.

"No, Steph, I'm serious," he spoke, "how in the hell does she find _strong opponents_? What qualifies as a strong opponent? Why is Yoshino supposed to be strong?"

"I-I… I dunno," she said, fidgeting with her hair. "Why Yoshino's strong is… I… um… n-no clue."

...shit. God damn it, what the fuck was he supposed to do _here?!_ How is he supposed to deal with the _possible_ (he still wasn't sure) revelation that his best friend is one of the people that go about killing Tohka's kind, and he was one of the people that advocated for Spirits living? What was this modern-ass Romeo and Juliet bullshit-

Wait. Yoshino. If Steph was a Wizard, why would she harbor Yoshino, especially considering as a Wizard, she'd have easily realized something was off with the kid by now? What wasn't adding up here?

"You know. You've gotta explain."

"I said I don't know, didn't I? If I don't know, I don't know!"

"No, you don't want to say! Spit it out already! This secret seems like it's causing more problems than anything else!"

Stephanie paused. Maybe it was because of his tone, or from the anger in his voice when he demanded it, but it worked to make her stop. Ocean blue eyes looked into his brown, hesitance abound in them.

"I… do you know what spacequakes are?"

Gateways to some world that vomits up Spirits? Japan popping a pimple? Tohka's period?

"No," he stated, happy that the honesty in his voice wasn't fake, because Ratatoskr had absolutely no clue what spacequakes actually were. Steph looked at him, as if trying to analyze whether or not he was telling the truth, and sighed in acceptance.

"They're not natural disasters," she explained. Ean pinched himself in response. Could she be… no.

No way in hell.

"Spacequakes are… nevermind. I dunno why I'm telling you this," she sighed, turning away. Ean noticed that she rubbed her arms where the bandages sat and clenched his jaw.

"What, do you not trust me?"

Her blue eyes flickered up, and for once, he didn't see his friend in them. Maybe it was the rain or the situation they were in, but her liveliness was gone. All that was left was a desperate coldness and exhaustion before she turned away, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"Not with this."

"Seriously, what the hell? You flip back and forth from just a few words, you're attached to a kid you've barely known for hours, and after almost a month of us getting to know one another, I know jack _shit_ about you."

"You kno-"

"Where do you live? Why do you have bandages on your arms? Why were you buying medicinal salves when we bumped into each other at the market? Why do you feel the need to lie to me about stuff that's easily explained? I can come up with more," he tacked on at the end, jamming his hands into his pockets and looking at her with hard, analytical eyes. She glared back, rubbing her wrists.

"Fuck off."

"Amazing rebuttal. My desire for answers to my very straightforward questions has been quenched, I repeat, _fucking quenched_ , by your tactful statement."

She bore her teeth at him and tried to shove him away. He caught her wrists with ease and gave them a squeeze. Stephanie's face paled almost instantly and she pulled back, gingerly feeling her wrists with shaking hands.

"Get real," he seethed, "I'm not going to stop because your precious feelings are hurt if you can't even be straight with me on anything."

"Why the hell do you care so goddamn much about me and my problems?"

"Because whether you like it or not, I see you as a friend, so it's my responsibility to make sure you don't do something life-changing like Shido apparently loves doing."

"You don't even know what Tohka is," she growled. Ean bristled in return.

"She's my friend, you bitch." Stephanie flinched at that one. "Talk to me after you pulled the stick outta your ass," he muttered coldly, turning on his heel and stomping away, intent on finding Yoshino before Steph or her Wizard friends did. That jab at Tohka confirmed it.

He turned and left Steph on her own, marching down an alleyway by his lonesome. It was due to his detachment from people that he was down to put his foot through the side of a rusting dumpster and rip it out with a shout of seething anger without hesitation.

Bitch.

* * *

"Kotori, have the scanners on the Fraxinus picked up anything?"

It was the sign of his exhaustion. Shido had finally decided enough was enough and glared icily at the pouring rain, handing the reins over to Kotori to hope and pray that his aching feet's screams would finally be muted.

" **No,** " she said almost bitingly. It sapped the hope from his chest and slapped him across the face. He drew breath, maybe to complain or ask Kotori to spare him the sass and just slay him. The breath became useless.

" **We're going over a monthly diagnostic for all of our tech. Take out your earbud and don't put it back in until I tell you.** "

"Oh. Are you sure? What if-"

" **Shut up and do what I said,** " Kotori growled.

The teenager frowned. That was harsh, even for Commander Mode. No teasing remarks or subtle jabs at his character? What, was this the end of his little sister's patience as well?

"Uh… okay? You alright?"

" **Talk later** ," she responded, her voice vanishing. Shido removed the communicator with a small frown and put it back in his pocket. Tohka looked to him with concerned eyes, her hair and clothes sopping wet and making him feel miserable for dragging her out like this.

"Is Kotori okay?"

"Yeah, Tohka. I hope," he mumbled quietly to himself, Tohka nodding and busying herself looking for Yoshino. He was above calling out to the kid like she was a lost dog, yet Tohka wasn't, shouting Yoshino's name at the top of her lungs and being a general nuisance to anyone walking past. On a whim after another two blocks, he glanced to the side, hand in hand with Tohka, and asked almost sarcastically to a man stumbling along with a small flyer in his face, "I'm looking for a short girl with blue hair?"

"Oh, yeah, she just walked past," the man responded, returning to his distraction. Shido smiled thankfully, and Tohka pulled him along with renewed vigor. He didn't even care if people looked at him like he was Tohka's accessory now that Yoshino would be alright!

"Shido, do you think it's really her?"

"Hopefully! You're quite enthusiastic about this, aren't you?"

"Of course! It's only right for Spirits to watch out for one another!"

He choked on his own throat, looking toward Tohka with astonishment in his eyes. He hadn't even _thought_ that Tohka would know, but in hindsight, why wouldn't she? They were thinking about it like humans instead of like Spirits! Tohka didn't understand much of society, but on things about Spirits, she was probably one of the best!

"Wait, she's really-?"

"Of course," Tohka returned, "I think it's actually easier to tell us apart from huma-" she faltered, eyes growing wide at the sight of blue hair and a short stature, "THERE SHE IS! YOSHINO-CHAN!"

Before he could even get a word out to Tohka that said girl wasn't Yoshino in the slightest, the Spirit had rammed into her at full throttle and swept her off of her feet in a bridal hold, asking the total stranger about "why she left" and how they were "so worried for her!" To be frank, they were, but it'd be better if it was directed at the actual person, and now a crowd was beginning to form to wonder what Tohka was doing to this poor bystander dragged into their problems.

"What is going _on_ over there?"

"Is that girl… _screaming?_ "

"This looks like the strangest kidnapping I've seen in my life."

"Oh my god, is that _Itsuka_ and Tohka?"

"You're right! He must be cheating on Origami with those two girls! That rat bastard!"

"That's so lame…"

Oh god not now.

"Tohka! Wrong person! You're strangling her!"

Tohka stopped long enough to register that the screaming and flailing girl in her arms wasn't their intended target, and instead of setting her down like a normal person, whipped around and lobbed the girl at the floor, pointing dramatically at the downed girl.

"Who are you?! Where's Yoshino?!"

Shido's hand impacted his face at Mach five. He quickly peeled the girl off the ground, ignored the large scrape on her forehead, and ignored the strange look in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry for her ac-"

She was shorter than him, about Kotori's height. Brown eyes, blue hair, a mole near her eye; she was staring him down. She blinked a few times, as if not believing what she was se-

She's hugging him! A STRANGER IS HUGGING HIM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!

"I can't believe it! Shido!"

Tohka seized the girl's arms and tried to pull. The hug got _tighter._ He could feel his ribs breaking and yet his conscience was cleared by the _bright smile_ gracing him.

"Who _are_ you? How do you know Shido?"

"How do I know him? He's my big brother!"

"HOLY SHIT, SHIDO'S CHEATING ON ORIGAMI WITH TOHKA AND HIS _SISTER?!_ "

Wha…?

W… _what?_

...

 **Shido_ ver.287046 not responding...**

* * *

Prick.

Who in the hell did he think he was to _hurt_ her…

Her wrists screamed with agony. The pain was so high that a few tears leaked out from her eyes. It reminded her of home, the nights where _she_ was drunk and volatile. It was always how it started. Steph would eventually cry herself to sleep through to pain, wake up to more damage to the house, and leave for school.

She wiped her face with her sleeve, cringing at the sting of her hands, staggering back and forth. She realized she'd wandered to the train station, the place where she'd be alone with her thoughts. She loved to look at the trains and fantasize about getting the hell out of Tengu City, her home, and all of the horrible memories she'd gotten here. She could just _leave._ No one would care. Get on a train and run off for forever. She heard Inaba was nice and quiet.

"Weighing your options, Miss Wizard?"

Stephanie whipped around, ready to fight in an instant. Someone knew who she was. Someone she didn't want to see, because pain always followed.

One of them was in a wheelchair, with a ginger braid going down her left side. The other's eyes were cold and almost emotionless, her black hair barely touching her shoulders.

Cecile O'Brein and Leonora Sears. Ashley's friends, teammates, whatever the hell she wanted to call them nowadays. Why they were standing around a train station in Tengu wasn't her business. In fact, them being in Tengu at all wasn't her business.

They were in _her's._

"Why the hell are you two here?"

"Isn't it obvious? For Artemesia."

Steph scoffed, knowing that was a desire about as far away as the edge as the universe. Cecile frowned. Leonora, on the other hand, glared and made to step forward, her cold eyes punching daggers into Stephanie's head. Her jaw locked as the woman stepped forward, not for fear or preparation, but for the annoyance she felt over the situation.

"Don't even _fucking try_ , Leonora," Stephanie grit through her teeth, and the woman, who in the eyes of anyone else was dark and terrifying, scuttled behind Cecile's wheelchair while whimpering. The teen rubbed her eyes miserably, wishing something would whack her over the head before someone else from the DEM or SSS recognized her, because then she'd have an alibi before Cecile drove her insane.

"We're going to reassemble her memories," Cecile piped up. "We have three of them, and after a little explaining, Cheshire Cat's owner will allow us to temporarily take hold of it."

 _Damn it_ , Mikie. She'd be having a word with Okamine-sensei about opening her big dumb mouth.

"So what? That doesn't matter without the fifth of the Ashcroft series. And you know who has that, right? She'll _kill_ you, don't you get it?

"That's why we're here," Leonora mumbled. Steph glared in her direction before Cecile held out a hand.

"Stephanie Yaria, would you help us murder your caretaker, Minerva Riddell?"

Steph stopped. Full on paused in an attempt for her mind to reboot. Where they got their information, what their plan was, their attempt to reassemble the Ashcroft Series, and everything else coalesced in her teenage mind as one short and eloquent sentence, tinged with disbelief and acceptance.

"You're suicidal."

Killing Minerva? God she wished, but she'd rather live than act and undoubtedly die. She'd take the pain herself, brushing off anyone who found out and pushing away the people who thought the best for her. Better a failure like her than someone who didn't deserve it, like poor little Yoshino.

Cecile smiled, hand still outstretched with Leonora looking hopefully over the blind girl's shoulder.

"Are we? I'd say we're more desperate, but you could say that too. And after all the things she did to innocent people? To you? Breaking your wrists isn't the brightest mark on her list, remember?"

"I… are you sure about this? Minerva is _Minerva._ You know her track record better than I do."

Steph shook as she lied. Minerva loved to lord what horrible things she did over the girl. What horrible things she wanted to do.

"Stephanie, we know what she's done to you. Minerva keeps a journal with everything written down."

 _Everything?!_ Her mortification must have shown because Leonora pulled her into a sideways hug before her legs gave out. She clung to the woman like a dying man would a raft.

She didn't look Leonora in the eyes. She wouldn't be able to handle the pity.

"We're here now because of something we saw. Leo?"

Steph hiccuped. Cecile pulled something from her pocket and gestured for it to be seen.

A picture. It was of her smiling while at school, Ean heckling her at lunch while Shido was pulled into a confrontation over Tohka and Origami's cookies. It happened yesterday.

The world swayed and lead put up shop in her guts. Minerva _knew._ She knew about her friends. The evening prior had been peaceful because she wasn't there, filling any rooms with her presence and lust for conflict, but now it tore at her insides. She was _planning_.

"Oh god _no_ ," she choked, scrambling for her phone, to call and _warn them_ to run, to get the fuck out of Tengu and never look back, to forget she existed. Her phone buzzed on Ean's contact until it stopped suddenly, the icon showing on the screen that he declined her _FUCKING CALL!_

"You idiot, please, dear god pick up-"

"Minerva is going to kill them."

The woman in the wheelchair's voice carried enough weight to throw Stephanie off of her feet. They were going to die. Minerva would kill them.

Because of _her._

"I'm in. Anything to save them."

Cecile smiled.

* * *

 **This is it boys. Time for the train wreck to begin.**

 **End me before I take another six months for 4,000 words.**


End file.
